GOLD MEDAL PRESENTED BY THE CITY OF BOSTON
TO VISCOUNT ISHII

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

DIVISION OF INTERCOURSE AND EDUCATION

Publication No. 15

THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

1917

>

A Record of the Reception Throughout the United States
of the Special Mission Headed by Viscount Ishii

TOGETHER WITH THE EXCHANGE OF NOTES EMBODYING

The Root-Takahira Understanding of 1908

AND

The Lansing-Ishii Agreement of 1917
Foreword by Elihu Root

WASHINGTON, D. C.

1918

«

COPYRIGHT 1918 ' '

BY THE
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE

2 JACKSON PLACE
WASHINGTON, D. C.

,8

PRESS OF BYRON S. ADAMS
WASHINGTON, D. C.

FOREWORD

Both Japan and America owe a real debt to Viscount Ishii and his associates
for the way in which they discharged the duty of their recent Mission to
America. Only a full and just comprehension of American character and points
of view enabled this distinguished Japanese statesman to deliver his message of
friendship acceptably to varied audiences in many cities, and, passing beyond the
formal expressions of international courtesy, to say many serious things of sub-
stance and moment regarding the delicate and sometimes difficult relations be-
tween the two countries without sounding a false note or ever jarring the sensi-
bilities of his hearers. After this no one can maintain that the differences be-
tween the East and the West in character and in ways of thinking and feeling
need prevent an Eastern and a Western nation from understanding each other well
enough to establish a sincere and helpful friendship upon the basis of mutual
appreciation and confidence. There have been misunderstandings between the
people of Japan and the people of the United States. The people of each country
have had vague and mistaken impressions about the purposes and motives of the
other country. Many things have been said and printed, and some things have
been done under the influence of these misunderstandings and tending to increase
them. This does not apply to the two governments. Nothing could be more
frank and considerate and friendly than the relations between them. They have
not misunderstood each other because they have had the means and the wish to
inform themselves, and they have understood and trusted each other.

But in these times peoples and not governments determine what interna-
tional relations shall be, and among the effects of the Great War already mani-
fest is a continually strengthening tendency towards the increase of this popular
control of international affairs. The world will be vastly the gainer by the
change from the old methods of diplomacy, but the change brings its own dangers.
The central vice of the old system of diplomacy in camera has been the control
of secret selfish policies of aggrandizement in which the interests of the popular
mass play little or no part. The danger of popular diplomacy rests in popular
misunderstanding of national rights and duties, and the suspicions and resent-
ment and violent impulses resulting from popular misunderstanding. Trained
diplomats usually understand the merits of the controversies in which they are
involved, because it is their business to inform themselves ; but there are serious
difficulties in the way of such an understanding by the whole people of any
country. The great body of the people seldom take an interest in any foreign
question until there is some excitement about it. Before the excitement it is
hard for those who know the facts and the law to get a hearing, and after the

IV FOREWORD

•

excitement has come it is apt to be too late. It is very difficult for the public
to test the correctness of statements about the facts and the legal rights on which
international controversies depend, and they are accordingly liable to be misled by
misrepresentation, sometimes by mistaken ignorance and sometimes with a ma-
licious purpose. Such a purpose acquiring control of a few newspapers may do
infinite harm in the relations between two countries which have no real reason
whatever for any feeling towards each other but confidence and friendship.
Sometimes the misleading motive is in a demagogue who seeks office or fortune
through public assaults upon foreigners, and sometimes it is in the policy of
nations who wish to enhance their own power by promoting discord among
others.

Among the maxims which Frederick the Great left for the guidance of his
successors are these:

If possible, the powers of Europe should be made envious against one
another, in order to give occasion for a coup when the opportunity arises.

I understand by the word Policy that one must make it his study to
deceive others. That is the way to get the better of them.

Form alliances only in order to sow animosity.

It is apparent that the policy thus expressed and always followed by the
reigning house of Prussia has been applied to mislead the peoples of Japan and
the United States and to make trouble between the two countries.

In a situation which involved such elements of difficulty Viscount Ishii has
applied the force of high intelligence at precisely the right point. The novelty
of his undertaking attracted popular attention. The frankness and charm of his
expression awakened kindly interest, and the authentic character of his statements
carried conviction. The speeches he made and the responses they elicited have
been of the highest value to both countries. Taken as a whole, they constitute a
great event in international history, and their influence will be long continued.
To contribute towards that end by preserving the speeches and responses in per-
manent and accessible form this volume is printed.

ELIHU ROOT.

February 8, 1918.

For the collection of material and for the editing of the present volume the Division
of Intercourse and Education is under heavy obligation to Mr. T. lyenaga, Director of the
East and West News Bureau, and Mr. Joseph I. C. Clarke of New York, which obligation
is gratefully acknowledged.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY ELIHU ROOT PAGE

I. THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION 1

Formation and Personnel 1

II. A HALT AT HONOLULU 3

Welcome by Governor Pinkham 3

Viscount Ishii's Reply 4

III. ON THE PACIFIC COAST 6

At the City Hall 6

Secretary Lansing's Telegram 7

Citizens' Committee Luncheon 7

Municipal Banquet 8

Viscount Ishii's Dinner 11

* IV. AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL f 14

Welcome to Washington by Secretary Lansing 14

Viscount Ishii to the Press 15

At the White House 15

A Visit to Annapolis 18

At Washington's Tomb 19

Viscount Ishii on his Mission 21

Reception by the Secretary of State and Mrs. Lansing 21

At the Navy Yard 22

Before the United States Senate 22

Before the House of Representatives 26

Dinner at Graystone 30

V. PHILADELPHIA'S WELCOME 31

Ambassador Morris's Welcome 31

Chamber of Commerce Luncheon 33

Symposium of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 37

VI. AT COMMODORE PERRY'S GRAVE, NEWPORT, R. 1 42

Tribute to the American who Opened Japan 64 Years ago 42

Reception and Address at the Casino 43

VII. HONORED GUESTS OF BOSTON 46

At the State House 46

Municipal Dinner 48

Harvard University 52

Boston City Club Luncheon • 52

Motor Trip over Historic Ground 53

VIII. GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN 55

Viscount Ishii's Address to the National Press Club 55

Progress of the Diplomatic Conversations 58

PAGE

IX. NEW YORK— I 59

Mayor Mitchel's Proclamation 59

Parade and Reception at the City Hall 60

Up Fifth Avenue— The 69th Regiment 68

Sightseeing 69

Chamber of Commerce Reception and Luncheon 69

At the Tomb of General Grant 75

Dinner Given by Mayor Mitchel and Executive Committee 75

Japan Society's Reception 78

A Trip to West Point 81

X. NEW YORK— II 83

Municipal Banquet 83

Address of Former President Taft 87

The Open Door 90

A Day with Japanese Compatriots 92

Dinner Given by Japanese 93

Luncheon at the Bankers' Club 94

Oswald Garrison Villard's Dinner 99

A Visit to Theodore Roosevelt Ill

XI. HOMEWARD BOUND 112

A Message of Gratitude from»the Coast . 112»

A Word of Reassurance from Hawaii 112

XII. VISCOUNT ISHII'S TRIBUTE TO AMERICA 113

The Emperor's Message of Thanks to President Wilson 115

APPENDIX A. The Root-Takahira Exchange of Notes, 1908 119

APPENDIX B. The Lansing-Ishii Exchange of Notes, 1917 121

INDEX TO SPEAKERS 127

I

THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Formation and Personnel

Upon the declaration by the United States that a state of war existed
between the Emperor of Germany and his government on one side and the
United States on the other, the various governments of the Allied Powers also
at war with Germany, hailing the potency of the new entrant, at once took
measures to draw as tightly as possible the common bond against the common
enemy. In addition to the ordinary methods of official communication through
the chancelleries, the gravity of the great interests involved seemed to call for
something more direct, more personal, and led to the appointment of govern-
mental missions composed of the highest types of officials charged with extend-
ing the warm hand of friendship to America. At the same time these missions
were advised to confer in the fullest intimacy upon all the problems of the
war, whether purely military, economic, or financial, to the best results for the
Allied cause. The Mission from France, which included Marshal Joffre and
Premier Viviani, and the British Mission, headed by Arthur James Balfour, were
followed by missions from Italy and Russia, and it was quite in the regular
order that the Emperor of Japan should commend a similar course to Premier
Marshal Count Terauchi, leading to the appointment of an Imperial Japanese
Mission to the United States with Viscount Kikujiro Ishii at its head. This
appointment of a skilled and highly trained diplomat of winning personality as
ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary was warmly applauded in Japan.

In the fifty-first year of his age, the Viscount had been in the public service
almost since his graduation in 1890 from the Law School of the Imperial
University of Tokio. His first diplomatic post was with the Japanese Legation
at Paris in 1891, becoming third secretary in 1893. In 1896 he was consul at
Ninsen and second secretary of the Japanese Legation at Peking in 1897, to be
promoted to first secretary in the following year. It was in this position that
he sustained the memorable siege of the legations in Peking during the Boxer
uprising. Recalled to Tokio, he was made secretary at the Foreign Office and
chief of the Telegraph Section. Promoted in 1904 to the directorship of the
Commerce Bureau, he was dispatched to San Francisco and Vancouver in 1907
in connection with the anti-Japanese trouble there. Vice Minister of Foreign
Affairs in 1908, he was in a short time made Ambassador to Paris, whence he

2 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

was recalled to take the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1915-1916. Here were
indications of a many sided diplomat that personal contact always bore out
with something invariably added to the account to be credited to personal charm
and high character. He was named Baron in 1912, created Viscount in 1916,
being at the same time nominated by the Emperor to membership in the House
of Peers.

The standing of his associates was also notable. Vice Admiral Takeshita
had been with the Japanese Legation at Washington as an attache ; Major Gen-
eral Sugano was distinguished in the modern Japanese army; Masanao Hani-
hara, Consul General at San Francisco, was a trusted and experienced officer;
Matsuzo Nagai. Secretary of the Foreign Office, had served at New York,
Washington and San Francisco; Commander Ando and Lieutenant Colonel
Tanikawa were brilliant men in their classes.

At a meeting and banquet of the America- Japan Society held in Tokio on
July 6, attended by Premier Terauchi and the members of his cabinet, some-
thing of a formal good-by and Godspeed was given to the Mission amid cheers
and cries of "Banzai!"

II

A HALT AT HONOLULU

Welcome by Governor Pinkham

Freighted with the warm good will of the rulers and people of Japan, Vis-:
count Ishii and his companions of the Imperial Mission took ship at Yokohama
for San Francisco, dropping anchor on the way in the harbor of Honolulu on
August 6, where the first of a long series of ovations awaited them. The large
Japanese population joined joyously in the welcome to the Imperial Mission
tendered by the United States authorities, headed by Governor Lucius Eugene
Pinkham. In the afternoon Viscount Ishii and the other gentlemen of the
Mission were taken in motor cars to many points of interest, the Pali, the sugar
lands of the interior, the coast lines and many scenic beauties of the island.
In the evening a dinner was given to the Mission at the Alexander Young
Hotel. Some eighty guests participated. The greatest good feeling prevailed.
Governor Pinkham said by way of welcome:

Your Excellency, Viscount Ishii, Consul General Moroi, members of the
Mission, and gentlemen:

It has been my privilege to note some of the expressions made by Your
Excellency in your address before the America- Japan Society exactly one
month ago tonight. I have noted the sentiments expressed on that occasion
by your most distinguished statesmen and diplomats, the Honorable Count
Terauchi, Premier of Japan, Viscount Ichiro Motono, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Viscount Kentaro Kaneko, Privy Councilor, and Eki Hioki, Diplo-
mat. The sentiments were all friendly and cordial to the United States of
America and urgent for a peace consistent with the highest ideals, to be
maintained in perpetuity. A mission filled with the spirit of your Mission,
sustained by your statesmen at home and abroad, can not fail to make the
profoundest impression on the American people and the whole world, now
so intricately involved in every phase of human and national existence.

It is for you who know the innermost springs of purpose and action to
predict the outcome of your magnificent report, and not for me, so far from
the center of American statesmanship and diplomacy and unauthorized to
speak.

It is for us in this isolated archipelago to hope for what is best for our
country. These islands have had much to do with modern Japan, and
Japan has had much to do with modern Hawaii, and will have much more
to do with modern Hawaii, for the potentialities of the predominance of
the Japanese race in the territory of Hawaii are obvious.

THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Our relations have been ethical, educational and commercial, and the
happy results have been this day under your observation.

The world in these latter days learns much from Japan. Her action
in now forming a national advisory council assures not only your own
country, but others, that Japan will have profoundly considered advice and
suggestion to offer when a settlement of these international problems is
before the world.

Your Excellency, eminent men from your nation often pass through the
capital of the territory of Hawaii, and quite freely express their ideas and
sentiments.

Your country has most effective representatives and speakers to present
your views at prominent functions in our great eastern cities.

We know the varying individual sentiments of individual Japanese, but
await with profoundest interest on your Mission in its official" expression
of the heart and aims of the Japanese people and His Imperial Japanese
Majesty Yoshihito, Emperor of Japan.

No nation is wise in its judgment of its enemies until it has taken com-
plete cognizance of every fact entering into the problem, until it sizes up
every impulse that enters into the strength or weakness of its enemies — '•
and he who can not recognize and combat the strength and take advantage
of the weakness of his country's enemies is a poor citizen and unfit for the
responsibilities war thrusts on soldiers and supporting civilians.

Hawaii, through the efforts of its governor, today stands relatively far
at the head of the National Guard of the United States and has already
furnished double her quota in complying with the selective draft.

This day I have received by wireless from the other islands information
that enables me to know wherein we can invite the Japanese to legally join
the National Guard, and orders have been issued to the adjutant general to
form a company of Japanese for the National Guard of Hawaii.

I know that when it comes to action on the field of battle Americans,
Hawaiians and Japanese will stand shoulder to shoulder against our com-
mon foe.

Viscount Ishii's Reply
Viscount Ishii arose to reply amid ringing applause. He said :

Mr. Governor and gentlemen:

It is a matter of deep regret to me that the vocabulary at my command
is so deficient as to make it impossible to adequately express the apprecia-
tion of myself and the members of my party of the welcome you are now
giving us on the threshold of this outer gateway to your glorious country.

This welcome we consider as a testimony to the earnest desire of the
government of the territory to show every courtesy to the Mission— a testi-
mony by which we are profoundly touched and for which we beg to express
our heartfelt thanks.

The cordial greeting thus extended to us upon our arrival in the territory
of your great commonwealth will hearten us on our way to the Golden

A HALT AN HONOLULU 5

Gate and to Washington, whither we are hurrying, with a message of friend-
ship and appreciation from Japan, whose aims and ideals are at one with
those of the United States in the present war.

Here I find in the fields and in the marts of this beautiful land the Jap-
anese are living and working happily together with Americans under this
highly effective and able administration. What I have seen and what I
have heard today afford me sincere satisfaction. But this is not all that
is necessary at this solemn moment. It should be remembered that there is
an additional duty which the Japanese residents on the islands of Hawaii
should keep constantly before them. I mean that they must not only be
satisfied with being law abiding, industrious and considerate, but they musf
be ready to conform themselves to the requirements of circumstances. They
must offer and render whatever tribute of friendship and good will they
can conceive in their diversified capacities and each pay to, the country the
obligation of a guest. I firmly believe that in taking this position and in
these words I am merely echoing the voice and reflecting the fixed senti-
ments of the Japanese residents of Hawaii.

I hasten to express the sense of pleasurable satisfaction we feel after the
round of visits to many places of interest which we have made this after-
noon under the courteous, well conceived and personal guidance of Your
Excellency and your staff. It is not merely flattery to state that the charm
and beauty of this land of yours can not f#il to soothe the traveler after a
somewhat monotonous voyage. Every minute spent in your islands is replete
with comfort and delight, and surely the pleasant experiences of this after-
noon will never be erased from the memories of this special Mission. To
me it was particularly interesting, as I was able to mark the great progress
made here, both industrially and otherwise, since my last visit just ten
years ago.

Your Excellency, and gentlemen, noting today all the blessings that a
prodigal nature first provided to be developed later by man, I felt more
deeply than I had perhaps felt hitherto, the call to the manhood that is
in me and in us all, to use the best gifts nature has bestowed upon us in
order that, in cooperation with the courage, faith and honest purpose which
are so well typified in these islands of Hawaii, we may help to bring the
world, in due course, to such a peace as will ensure to every man and to
every nation the fruits of honest endeavor. We thank you.

Crowned with flowers, according to the beautiful Hawaiian custom, the
commissioners returned to their steamer and the voyage was resumed.

Ill

ON THE PACIFIC COAST

On August 13, when the hills of California were still dim at the horizon,,
a United States battleship circled the vessel protectingly. The Japanese liner
hoisted the Rising Sun flag at her forepeak in honor of her distinguished pas-
sengers, and came to a halt outside the Golden Gate to allow a steamer decked
with flags to put on board a delegation consisting of Mr. Breckinridge Long, Third
Assistant Secretary of State, and representatives of the army and navy sent
from Washington to welcome the Imperial Mission on approaching the shores
of America.

Passing inside the headlands the members of the Mission were transferred
to a steam launch and proceeded at high speed across the beautiful bay to the
landing place, where an enormous assemblage awaited their arrival. Masses of
troops at salute lined the street while the Japanese anthem was played.

At the City Hall

Lines of troopers rode beside the automobiles which conducted the party
to the Grand Municipal Chamber of the City Hall, where prolonged cheers
greeted every member as the Mayor, James Rolph, Jr., introduced them to the
assembled citizens who crowded the chamber. It was truly a remarkable dem-
onstration of good will, and its effect upon the members of the Mission was
marked. After a brief but happy welcome to California and the United States
by the Mayor, Viscount Ishii arose, and said :

Mr. Mayor, representatives of the federal, state and municipal govern-
ments, and gentlemen of San Francisco:

On the part of my government and my people I thank you for this cor-
dial welcome to the shores of America. The lavish honors which you have
seen fit to confer upon this Mission and the generosity of your reception
are a guarantee to me and my colleagues that the purposes of our visit are
understood and appreciated.

We are here as the representatives of Japan on a mission of friendship
and good will. We come to you as allies in a common cause, as comrades
in a gigantic struggle which involves the liberties and the most sacred rights
of mankind.

An outburst of cheers, prolonged by applause, halted the speaker for some
moments. He continued:

ON THE PACIFIC COAST 7

This, perhaps, is neither the time nor the place for a detailed exposition
of the plans and hopes which inspire us. It is sufficient that you see in
our presence here this afternoon Japan's pledge of loyalty to the principles
for which America has thrown down the gage of battle. We shall proceed
to Washington, carrying to your great President and to the American people
a message of fraternity, confidence and cheer. It is our ambition — if that
were necessary — to impress once more upon the American people the solemn
fact that Japan stands with you, heart and soul, in your lofty purpose to
make this world the safe abiding place of liberty, justice and fair play.
In this crisis of the world's affairs we are proud to call ourselves the allies
of the great American Republic, and we are honored by your trust and
good will.

I can only add that this splendid demonstration at the very moment of
our arrival on your hospitable shores fills our hearts with gratitude and
inspires every member of this Mission with the conviction that the objects
of our visit to America are already guaranteed.

I again thank you, Mr. Mayor, and gentlemen of the reception com-
mittee, and beg that you will convey to the good people of America, and
more particularly to those of San Francisco and the great state of Cali-
fornia, Japan's appreciation of the honors done her this day. I can only
add the very imperfect assurances of my personal gratitude.

Secretary Lansing's Telegram

On August 14 the following telegram was received by Viscount Ishii from
Mr. Robert Lansing, Secretary of State, dated from Washington, D. C. :

The President directs me to welcome your high Mission to our country
and to assure you of the cordial reception you will have from the American
people, who have ever entertained the warmest feelings for your nation and
have admired the earnestness with which your people of the Far East have
won so honorable a place among nations by devotion to their national devel-
opment. May the ties that bind our nations ever increase in strength through
a fraternal community of national aspirations.

Citizens' Committee Luncheon

The receipt of the Secretary's telegram was the prelude to a busy day. The
first important function was a luncheon tendered by the Mayor and Citizens'
Committee of San Francisco at the Cliff House, whither the visiting party were
driven in motor cars, enjoying the views of the city and bay of San Francisco
and of the Pacific Ocean, with the sealrocks in the foreground peopled by their
furry amphibians, and the seas breaking over them in 'foam and thunder. The
occasion was thoroughly enjoyable, formality being as far as possible waived.
After Mayor Rolph had heartily welcomed the Viscount and the delegation,
Viscount Ishii replied with much feeling:

8 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Mr. Mayor, gentlemen of San Francisco, and friends:

Your courtesy this afternoon is very gratifying to me, and its expres-
sion is typical of all I know of San Francisco. Your presence here and the
beautiful spot you have chosen for this demonstration of good will, would,
if I were an orator, inspire words which I, unfortunately, do not command.
It is most fitting, I think, that Americans and Japanese should stand here,
almost in the surf of the great ocean which we both love, to pledge our
faith in each other and consecrate ourselves anew to the common interests
which unite us.

I am grateful because I can interpret your courtesy and your hospi-
tality in but one way, and that is a way which accords with the hopes and
the desires of the people whom I have the honor to represent. It means
good will. It means that you want kindly relations with Japan just as
Japan wants them with you. It means that your minds and hearts are open
to friendship and all that friendship implies. It means peace, trade, fellow-
ship and a common interest in a common civilization. For these assur-
ances of spirit and purpose I thank you in the name of my government and
people.

My own mission to this country is one of peace and good will. I come
to you at a critical time in the affairs of men to consult upon grave matters
of common interest. I come to you as an ally in arms, bringing the assur-
ance of the liberty loving people of Jaoan that they stand with you, shoul-
der to shoulder, in the great struggle which you are now making for justice
and human rights. I come to coneratulate you on your solendid courage
in demonstrating to the whole world that a nation can rise to such moral
heights, and put considerations of humanity before love of ease, of wealth,
or life itself.

Surely this welcome at the very threshold of the Golden Gate is a
happy omen. It not only fills my heart and the hearts of the members of
my suite with pride and' satisfaction, but it carries the assurance that our
Mission is destined to bring a harvest of good things.

Permit me once more, Mr. Mayor, to thank you for your gracious wel-
come, your unbounded hospitality, and, above all, for this demonstration
of good will towards my country. You have done us much honor, but more
than this you have placed me and all of us under an obligation which, while
great indeed, must be for all time a pleasant burden. It is a debt we will
find delight in paying in part whenever and wherever opportunity shall offer.
In any event, I assure you San Francisco will remain a happy memory.

Late in the afternoon General Sugano was given his first glimpse of Amer-
ican troops in force when he reviewed six thousand soldiers and sailors with
Major General Hunter Liggitt commanding the Western Department of the
U. S. Army.

Municipal Banquet

It was, however, a very high and important function that awaited the atten-
tion of the Mission for the evening. At the Palace Hotel preparations were

ON THE PACIFIC COAST 9

being made for five hundred guests for a great banquet. And wonders had
been accomplished in the use of lights and colors and flowers in decorations
proper for honoring the guests of the Far East. The Stars and Stripes were
conspicuously draped with the Rising Sun flag of Japan. The dinner was given
under the auspices of the city of San Francisco, and as to cuisine, appointments
and service certainly won deserved praise. The speakers' table was dotted with
uniforms ; high officers of the American army sat in khaki with Major General
Hisaichi Sugano and naval officers in blue surrounded Vice Admiral T. Takeshita,
the ranking army and navy representatives on the Mission ; the State Depart-
ment delegates were headed by Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant Secretary
of State. It was altogether a brilliant and representative gathering. Mr. Gavin
McNab acted as toastmaster. In opening the addresses he said in part:

San Francisco has the honor, on behalf of our country, to welcome to
America these distinguished representatives of a nation, now our ally —
always our friend — Japan.

The visit of these statesmen, important though it would be at any time,
is on this momentous occasion fraught with transcendent consequences, not
only to our people but to the world and to the future of the human race.

America and Japan on opposite sides of the Pacific have learned that
this mighty ocean unites and does not divide our people. This vast water is
nature's greatest commercial gift to man. It is an inspiration — an invita-
tion— to enterprise and adventure, with possibilities capable of marvels. On
its broad bosom will, in days to come, float the largest commerce of the
world; on its shores will be the theatre in which the future will stage the
grandest drama of human events.

America, representing the newest civilization, and Japan, speaking for
the newest and oldest civilization, facing each other across these waters,
are partners and trustees for the world in the destinies of these shores and
these, seas. In the tragic events that are remaking the world we stand
together.

When our country joined the war to fight for the permanent peace of
all the world, our great President, in language as noble as that of the
prophets of Israel, voiced the spirit of our people and the heart of humanity
in declaring for the freedom and rights of all mankind, and, in words en-
titled to a place in scripture, declared that the Golden Rule should be inter-
national law.

When the sacrifices of a bleeding world have made His words true, man
will be worthy of Him who said : "I have made man in my own image."
Tonight, with the hands of America and Japan joined across the oce^n, we
dedicate ourselves to this noble and righteous cause, serenely facing the
opinion of posterity, the verdict of history, and the judgment of Almighty
God.

In the course of paying special compliment to the Imperial Mission, Gover-
nor Stephens said in part:

10 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

We are allies. In the most titanic war in the annals of history Japan
and America have one aim — the preservation of democracy; one aspira-
tion— the triumph of international justice.

Attempts have been made to promote discord between the two nations,
but without success. The recent "Zimmerman note," cunningly designed to
stir up strife and resentment between our governments, failed in its purpose
and won only the contempt of the Japanese people.

Even if there were no present war to bind together our two nations,
our common purpose and our common good would call for a policy of
peace and amity. Neither country has anything to achieve, but, on the
contrary, everything to lose, by fostering or permitting to exist a spirit of
inharmony and distrust. We now are joined in a cause which demands our
united energy and strength, our fullest cooperation, and our unswerving
loyalty.

We welcome you to America and trust that you will carry back with
you assurances of our great respect and high esteem, together with the felici-
tations of the American government and the American people to the govern-
ment and to the people of Japan.

Mayor Rolph followed in an address which breathed the spirit of hospi-
tality and good will.

When, in response to the invitation of Toastmaster McNab, Viscount Ishii
arose to speak, the applause seemed to know no bounds and was long continued.
He said:

Mr. Mayor and gentlemen of San Francisco :

Words fail me when I undertake to acknowledge the full measure of
our obligation to your city and yourself. Notwithstanding the lessons of
tradition and the generous foretaste of American hospitality we received at
Honolulu, we are overwhelmed.

We are very proud because we know that this royal welcome you
extend to us springs from the heart of a nation whose every emotion finds
response in the pulses that beat in the brawny arm of San Francisco, now
flinging wide the Golden Gate, and offering the hand outstretched to greet us.

We come to you at the dawning of a new day. As individuals we have
no right to expect to find place at this busy time of preparation. But we
come as the humble representatives of the gracious sovereign of a friendly
and a loyal nation, and we say that we know well that performance not
profession, deeds not words, sacrifice not selfishness, are the requisites of
the hour.

% Our message is that in this day, through its hours of shadow or of
sunshine, your purpose is our purpose, your road our road, and your goal
our goal. It is that America and Japan will march together, work together
and fight together as comrades until the end has been reached and the
victory won in the struggle which involves our rights and our liberties.

We are here to say that in this tremendous struggle for those rights
and liberties, America and Japan are bound together; that when the victory

ON THE PACIFIC COAST 11

of the Allied forces is secure, America and Japan should so live that your
sons and our sons will have a certainty of good-neighborhood; so live that
no word or deed of either can be looked upon with suspicion; that venom-
ous gossip, hired slander, sinister intrigue, and influence of all of which we
have both been the victims, can in future only serve to bring us closer
together for mutual protection and for the common welfare.

The importance of such cooperation was brought home to us particu-
larly as we voyaged safely and pleasantly across the Pacific Ocean. We
must indeed have assurance of good order in our neighborhood. We can
not either of us take risks. It 'becomes the first duty of Japan and America
to guard the Pacific and to ensure safe, continuous intercourse between Asia
and the United States; to see to it that the ships of the ferocious pirates,
whose crimes upon the high seas can never be palliated or atoned for, find
no shelter in the waters of our seas. It is for us together to continue to
enforce respect for law and humanity upon the Pacific from which the
German menace was removed at the commencement of the war. Had this
not been so, had the Barbarian of Europe not been rooted from his Oriental
bases, the shuddering horrors of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean would
today be a grim reality on the Pacific. In the protection of our sea going
merchandise and men, in safeguarding the pleasures of intercourse, you may
count on us as we must count on you.

Mr. Mayor and gentlemen, in the dawning of this new day of stress
and strain let us forget the little molehills that had been exaggerated into
mountains to bar our good relations. Let us see together with a clearer
vision the pitfalls dug by a cunning enemy in our path. Let us together fix
our eyes upon the star of principle which shall lead us together most surely
to a participation in the triumph of the right, to a certain victory in the
greatest, and, let us hope, the last great war in human history. And when
that victory shall have been won, let us together, with the same courage
and devotion as has been shown by this magnificent city, help in the up-
building of a new world which shall rise as San Francisco has risen, well
ordered, strong and beautiful, from the ashes of the old.

Viscount Ishii's Dinner

Various excursions for the members of the Imperial Mission filled the
morning hours of the third day in San Francisco, but they assembled in the
evening at the St. Francis Hotel, where Viscount Ishii had ordered a feast by
way of graciously turning the tables upon his lavish American hosts, headed
by Breckinridge Long of the State Department, Governor Stephens, Mayor
Rolph, the chairman of the Dinner Committee, and the naval and military officers
taking part in the various functions and festivities. It was a large and brilliant
party, over which sincerity and good humor presided. Viscount Ishii, address-
ing the gathering, said:

Gentlemen and friends: My first and most manifest duty this evening-
is to thank you for the honor of your presence. I do so with deep sin-
cerity, fully realizing the import of your kindness and courtesy.

12 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

This is probably my last evening, for the present, in San Francisco, and
I am happy to have the opportunity of saying to you, however imperfectly,
before proceeding eastward on my mission, -how profoundly I have been im-
pressed with the hospitality and the bigness of your people and city. You
have placed me and the members of my suite under lasting obligations of
gratitude. You have convinced my government and people that the heart
of the great West is all right, and that friendly cooperation from now on is
to be the keynote of all relations between America and Japan.

During the past three days I have been making what I believe you call
in America a whirlwind campaign. Your kindness has been the whirlwind,
an4 I and my colleagues have been the wind driven leaves. Fortunately,
we are most of us young men still in the prime of life, and we are endeavor-
ing to stand up as bravely as possible to the kindly blast. I am fully con-
vinced, however, that the city of San Francisco, headed by its gallant Mayor,
has entered into some kind of a conspiracy on this occasion to outdo its
own worldwide reputation for hospitality ; and when you remember that this
conspiracy has been aided and abetted by the federal government of the
United States and by the sovereign state of California, you will form some
idea of what it means to stand directly in the path of the wind.

But, aside from all pleasantry, gentlemen, I have indeed much occasion
for satisfaction tonight. The unstinted honors which you have extended
to this Mission are a notice to all the world that America and Japan are
standing side by side in the great issues of the day. You have spoken the
word here in San Francisco which binds us in harmony of purpose. Your
action clears away many a doubt and misunderstanding on the part of
the people of both countries as to our mutual aims and aspirations. The
hand of friendship which you have extended to me personally will be
accepted by the people of Japan as a tender of sincere good will towards
the sovereign and the people whom I have the honor to represent. You
have made the work of this Mission easier, and it will proceed upon its
way to the seat of government in Washington, buoyed up with the assur-
ances of America's friendly spirit. Your generous attitude makes it pos-
sible for every fair minded man to believe that there are no pending ques-
tions between America and Japan which, approached in this spirit, are not
susceptible of honorable and fair adjustment.

I take my leave of you, gentlemen, with a very full and grateful heart,
and, in the name of my government and the Japanese people, I again thank
you for the welcome extended to my Mission.

When the applause died down on the conclusion of the Viscount's speech,
Mr. Gavin McNab arose and said:

Ambassador Ishii refers to the warmth of San Francisco's welcome to
himself and party. But this reception is founded not on hospitality alone.
Long ago California's hospitality passed into a proverb. Perhaps this was
due to our origin. California entered civilization under the cross and not
by the sword. The year the Liberty Bell on the Atlantic rang the birth of
a nation in the throes of war, the mission bells on the shores of the ocean
named for Peace rang out the birth of San Francisco.

ON THE PACIFIC COAST 13

The gentle padres whose spiritual wanderings sanctified our soil built
the quaint mission churches — a horseback ride apart — and the traveler was
cared for without price ; the Spanish Don, who measured his land by the
league and not the acre, and whose cattle ranged a hundred hills, gave the
stranger his house and all ; the pioneer, who found the gold whose magic
charm assembled here the greatest adventurers from all the world, shared
his plenty with all. Thus hospitality became a tradition of the West. But it
is with more than hospitality that we greet these great men from over the
sea. Our feelings for them are inspired by the loftiest and noblest emo-
tions. They and we stand together as comrades in the greatest crisis that
has ever confronted mankind. That the world may be saved for humanity,
that civilization shall be preserved, our soldiers and sailors fight as brothers
on land and sea.

When our two peoples shed martyr blood in the struggle for the grand-
est cause and purpose for which the human race ever fought, by that pledge
of blood we insure the everlasting peace and friendship of these nations
and these peoples. The glorious sacrifice of our heroic dead shall be a bond
of peace for those who live.

The effect of the Imperial Mission in arousing public opinion throughout
the country was magical. Full reports of the various welcoming functions
in San Francisco were printed through the length and breadth of the land,
and something manful in the utterances of Viscount Ishii appealed to America.
At last Japan's protestations of good faith were believed. Here was an inter-
national juncture at which a half-hearted friend might have remained silent ; but
it was surely a man and a friend who came over the sea to tell us that his
country, Japan, was beside ours to the end in the war — an ally able to wear a
sword as well as a friend to help us shoulder our load. San Francisco simply
outdid itself in its courtly attentions to the Imperial Mission, making every mem-
ber feel that his presence had contributed largely to the pleasure as well as to
the significance of the functions.

Viscount Ishii had to bear in mind that the Mission was really a diplomatic
one and that he was called on to present himself to President Wilson at Wash-
ington at as early a date as possible. Hence the necessity of bringing the round
of festivities to an end, however alluring they might be.

IV
AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

Welcome to Washington by Secretary Lansing

The journey to the national capital was* made direct and was carried through
by the railroad authorities in the very best manner. A special train brought
the entire delegation to Washington. On board representing the American
government were Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant Secretary of State; Ran-
ford S. Miller, Consul General at Seoul, Korea, who had been assigned as aide
to Viscount Ishii ; Brigadier General James A. Irons, U. S. A., formerly military
attache at the American Embassy at Tokio and designated as aide to General
Sugano, and Captain C. C. Marsh, U. S. N., assigned as aide to Vice Admiral
Takeshita.

In addition to Viscount Ishii, Vice Admiral Takeshita and Major General
Sugano, the Mission party included Masanao Hanihara, Consul General at San
Francisco; Matsuzo Nagai, Secretary of the Foreign Office; Commander Ando,
Imperial Japanese Navy ; Lieutenant Colonel Tanikawa, Imperial Japanese Army ;
Tadanao Imai, Vice Consul ; Tashiro Owaku, Secretary, and Douglas L. Dunbar,
American Secretary of the Mission.

When the train drew into the Union Station on Wednesday, August 22,
Secretary of State Robert Lansing was on hand to greet the Imperial Mission
on behalf of the President. With him were Assistant Secretary of State William
Phillips, A. B. Ruddock, Secretary of the Embassy attached to the State Depart-
ment, and Colonel W. W. Harts, U. S. A., Military Aide to President Wilson.
Two troops of United States cavalry to act as escort were drawn up outside
the grand portal.

The New Hampshire Avenue residence of Perry Belmont, grandson of
Commodore Perry, had been placed at the disposal of the visitors. Its spacious
drawing rooms contain many relics and mementoes which Perry brought back
with him from his epoch making call on the Mikado.

Greetings on both sides were extremely cordial. Japanese Ambassador Sato
was present with all his aides to welcome his brother diplomat. Passing through
streets thronged with people, past long lines of school children dressed in white,
with the red sun of Japan on the fronts of their gowns, the distinguished visitors
were escorted by the cavalry. The display of Japanese colors and cries of school
children as the party passed up Pennsylvania Avenue and by the Treasury Build-

AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 15

ing, where the greater part of the crowds had gathered, appeared to delight the
visitors immensely. Viscount Ishii rode bareheaded most of the time, bowing
and smiling joyfully at every outburst.

The cortege duly reached the Belmont residence to be the guests of the
government during their stay. It was arranged that the formal calls, which must
precede the official conferences, would take place next day.

Viscount Ishii to the Press

Viscount Ishii, the special ambassador, spoke to the newspaper correspond-
ents in the afternoon of his gratification at the welcome given the Mission at
the national capital, at Honolulu, San Francisco and at all stages of its journey.
He would not give extended interviews until he had made his formal call on
President Wilson, but made the following statement:

To say I am pleased to be in Washington would be too conventional.
I am delighted, we are all delighted, with the cordial reception tendered to
us everywhere and with the splendid spirit of hospitality and of good will
we have found at all points.

In speaking to the gentlemen of a newspaper press, which wields such
enormous power in this great country, I am well aware that purely con-
ventional and formal utterance is worse than nothing — it sounds empty. But
at the same time, what can I say? I have not even done my first duty as a
guest. Obviously it would be improper therefore to anticipate the message
I carry from the Emperor of Japan to your great President.

My last visit to America was just ten years ago, and even on my short
drive through your very beautiful streets this morning I was able to mark
many changes for the better, though Washington has always remained a
pleasant memory. Many things have changed, and now that Japan and
America are together brothers in arms and fighting for a great common
cause, I have every hope and confidence in success, victory and for con-
tinued international amity.

In the evening the Mission dined informally with Ambassador Sato at his
residence.

i

At the White House

On Thursday afternoon Viscount Ishii, accompanied by Ambassador Sato
and the members of the Mission, called at the State Department and were received
by Secretary of State Lansing. Shortly thereafter. Secretary Lansing conducted
the Viscount and his party, including Ambassador Sato, to the White House. In
the Blue Room they were presented formally to President Wilson. It was an
impressive proceeding.

16 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

The formal presentation of the envoy's credentials took the form of the
delivery of an autographed document from the Emperor of Japan to the Presi-
dent of the United States. In accordance with custom this message was not

made public.

r<

Viscount Ishii is reported to have said:

Mr. President: On this occasion I have the good fortune to be the
bearer of a special message of welcome and deep appreciation from His Im-
perial Majesty the Emperor of Japan to the President and sovereign people
of the United States of America on their momentous decision to cooperate
in the great war now raging.

His Majesty, interpreting the unanimous sentiment of Japan, congratu-
lates your great country on this determination. It has been arrived at not
lightly and in a moment of passion, but after the exercise of a noble patience
and in a spirit of unselfish chivalry which have excited the admiration of the
whole world. That America is now fighting on the side of Japan is a source
of pride to His Majesty and to every Japanese.

It is not the first time, I may be allowed to remind you, Mr. President,
that this has happened. In 1900 I had the privilege of seeing with my own
eyes the American and Japanese colors waving together, when the allied
troops, in the face of terrible difficulties, triumphantly relieved the besieged
legations at Peking. I well remember the skill and courage with which the
American civilians and soldiers cooperated in the defense. The resourceful
bravery which those few Americans showed then American legions will show
now.

The auspicious cooperation of the United States of America and Japan
in the tremendous task of restoring the reign of mutual confidence and good
will among the nations of the earth can not but draw us closer together.
Our common efforts are directed to seeking an enduring peace based on
respect for the independence of the smallest and weakest states ; on con-
tempt for the arrogance of materialist force; on reverence for the pledged
word. In the service of these common ideals .our two countries must surely
realize a far nearer friendship than before.

This is no -ordinary war. . It is an issue between common morality and
an inhuman system of calculated aggression which would render all friendly
intercourse impossible. The welcome fact that the United States stands side
by side with the Allied Powers is a guarantee of -early victory, and so His
Imperial Majesty hails it as such with deep gratification.

The President said in reply:

Mr. Ambassador: It is with a sense of deep satisfaction that I receive
from your hand the letters whereby you are accredited as the ambassador
extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Japan on special mission to the United
States. It is a pleasure to accept through you from your imperial sovereign
congratulations on the entrance of the United States into the great conflict
which is now raging.

AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 17

The present struggle is specially characterized by the development of
the spirit of cooperation throughout the greater part of the world for the
maintenance of the rights of nations and the liberties of individuals. I as-
sure Your Excellency that standing as our countries now do, associated in
this great struggle for the vindication of justice, there will be developed
those close ties of fellowship which must come from the mutual sacrifice
of life and property. May the efforts now being exerted by an indignant
humanity lead at the proper time to the complete establishment of justice
and to a peace which will be both permanent and serene.

I trust Your Excellency will find your sojourn among us most agree-
able, and I should be gratified if you would be so good as to make known to
His Imperial Majesty my best wishes for his welfare,* for that of your
wonderful country and for the happiness of its people.

I am most happy to accord you recognition in your high capacity.

During the presentation of Viscount Ishii to the President, Major General
Sugano, accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Tanikawa, called upon the Secre-
tary of War, and Vice Admiral Takeshita, accompanied by Commander Ando, paid
his respects to the Secretary of the Navy.

Later in the afternoon, Secretaries Lansing, Baker and Daniels paid return
calls at the Belmont residence on the members of the Japanese Mission.

As guests of the President of the United States Viscount Ishii and the other
members of the Japanese Mission were banqueted at the White House in the
evening. It was a brilliant entertainment. In addition to the Imperial Mission,
resident Japanese Ambassador Sato attended; also were present the members of
the Cabinet, Senator Saulsbury, President pro tempore of the Senate; Speaker
Clark, of the House of Representatives; Supreme Court Justice Brandeis and
representatives of the Senate and House. Among others were Rear Admiral
Benson, Major General Hugh L. Scott, Herbert C. Hoover, the food adminis-
trator; Frank Scott, chairman of the War Industries Board; Judge Robert S.
Lovett, Bernard M. Baruch and Hugh Frayne. The function was without for-
malities. President Wilson, however, as host, was extremely cordial to the guest
of honor, and all the Japanese present proclaimed their pleasure in the experience.

Formal calls by Viscount Ishii and the members of the Imperial Mission
were made on the Senate and House of Representatives early on the following
day (August 24). At the Senate they were received by Senator Saulsbury and
at the House by Speaker Clark. The calls were formal. On both sides they
were marked by pleasantly spoken sentiments.

The legislative wheels practically suspended motion during the brief visit
of the Japanese Mission. Numerous Senators and Congressmen revived acquain-
tance with members of the party who at one time or another were connected
with the Japanese Embassy in Washington. Vice Admiral Takeshita and former
Secretary of the Embassy Hanihara in particular became central figures in in-
formal receptions as they passed through the corridors of the Capitol.

18 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

The calls of the Mission to the Capitol were later returned by Senator Sauls-
bury and Speaker Clark. Both men remained some time at the Belmont resi-
dence, the former reviving recollections of visits to Japan.

In the evening dinners were given by Secretary of War Baker and Secretary
of the Navy Daniels in honor respectively of Major General Sugano and Vice
Admiral Takeshita. The company in each case was composed of officers of
the arm of the service represented by the guest of honor.

A Visit to Annapolis

A visit to the Naval Academy at Annapolis was the feature of Saturday,
August 25. A private car attached to the Annapolis train bore Viscount Ishii
and the Mission, depositing them in record time at the main gate of the Academy
grounds, where they were greeted by Captain Eberle, the superintendent. The
day passed most enjoyably for the visitors. Having admired the spick and span
Academy literally from the tomb of John Paul Jones to the top of the highest
flag staff, they anxiously inquired about West Point, its comparative beauty, and
the possibility of its being seen.

From the moment they returned the salute of the superintendent on entering
until they waved a last farewell to him they smiled and expressed the greatest
admiration for the institution.

A company of marines, standing at attention, greeted the commissioners as
they stepped through the main gate, and a few minutes later, after a walk across
the campus, they found more than seven hundred plebeS, garbed in khaki and
white puttees, stretched across WTorden Field awaiting review. With the Mission
and Captain Eberle standing at attention, the Academy band began playing
"Kimigayo," the Japanese national air. Broad, appreciative smiles played across
the faces of the visitors as the thrilling air swept across the field. The plebes
then executed a few evolutions and withdrew amid applause.

Thenceforth the guests were given the freedom of the Academy. The flag
room of the library and the armory, where target practice is held, interested
them most. The many captured battle flags received their attention, and explana-
tion of target practice, including the raising of "dry" splashes in the floor,
moved the military and naval officials of the Mission to surprised remarks. Every
question they asked was answered fully, and they asked many. At the tomb of
John Paul Jones, in the basement of the chapel, the commissioners stood about
in silence for a few minutes, and then left. They also inspected a huge bell
on the campus which Commodore Perry brought from Japan years ago.

Captain Eberle and Mrs. Eberle were hosts at luncheon for the distin-
guished guests at the superintendent's quarters.

AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 19

At Washington's Tomb

For Sunday, the 26th, a touching ceremony was assigned — a visit to the
tomb and home of Washington at Mount Vernon. The members of the Jap-
anese Mission, with Secretary and Mrs. Daniels as hosts, sailed down the
Potomac on the President's yacht Mayflower. Accompanying them were Am-
bassador Sato, Secretaries Lansing, Redfield and Baker, Postmaster General
Burleson, Speaker Clark, members of the Senate and House, high officers of
the army, navy and marine corps, members of the missions of other European
countries and many prominent persons in diplomatic and official life.

Arrived at Mount Vernon the distinguished party repaired to the simple
tomb of George Washington, and Secretary Daniels, uncovering his head, said :

It is not inappropriate — nay, I think it has an historical significance —
to note that in this pilgrimage of our distinguished visitors from Japan to
the American Mecca they have come upon a ship of the navy as the guests
of the Navy Department. The men of the navy love to recall that when
in the early fifties it was determined to send a mission to Japan to open
the way for that intercourse which has been mutually so agreeable and
helpful, the diplomatic duty was entrusted to a distinguished naval officer,
Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, who had won fame ashore and
afloat. To the courage of a naval officer he added the accomplishments of
a diplomat, illustrating again how deserved was the praise of Lord Palmer-
ston, who said:

Whenever I want a thing well done in a distant part of the world,
when I want a man with a good head, a good heart, lots of pluck, and
Plenty of common sense, I always send for a captain in the navy.

Commodore Perry was the first to win the confidence of the Japanese
people and Japanese rulers. He lived before this day of hurried calls,
remained in Japan nearly three years, and had time to learn the worth of
the Japanese and to study their customs and traditions. He remained long
enough, too, for the people of Japan to learn from him and his fellow
officers, sailors, and marines the broad and fraternal spirit of the American
people who did not ask then, have not asked since, vand will never ask for
themselves, any right or privilege that may not likewise be freely granted
to the smallest nation.

In 1855 the Perry treaty was ratified, and Japan and the United States
formed a friendship which, cemented by the treaty negotiated for us by
Townsend Harris, has bound together with hooks of steel the peoples of
these two great nations. July 4 was established forever as a holy day of
patriotism for the United States by the victories of George Washington.
Independence Day has also a place in Japan's calendar, for it was on July
4, 1859, that the treaty providing for commerce between the United States
and Japan became effective. Thus the American and Japanese diplomats
strengthened and enlarged the treaty secured by Commodore Perry.

20 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

America opens its hearts and homes to the distinguished members of
the Japanese Mission, and with a peculiar sense of fitness in the present
crisis we welcome you to the shrine of George Washington, the patron
saint of America, who illustrated those virtues of valor and statesmanship
which attract men of like mold of every clime and every nation.

Today, with stronger ties than ever, woven out of the threads of our
mutual participation in the worldwide struggle to insure to all mankind the
right to live their own lives and pursue their own national ideals, Japan
and America pause at the tomb of Washington, in the hope that there may
fall upon us all a double portion of his spirit of faith in the triumph of
the right and his readiness to make the supreme sacrifice for the principles
for which America, Japan, and their allies are now contending in the arena
of war. They have drawn the sword to end military feudalism. They
will sheathe it only in a victory that will guarantee permanent peace. We
will follow in the present war the admonition of General Washington, who,
bequeathing to his nephew his swords, which now hang in his home at
Mount Vernon, gave this counsel:

These swords are accompanied with an injunction not to unsheathe
them for the purpose of shedding blood, except it be for self-defense
or in the defense of their country and its rights, and in the latter case
to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling zvith them in his hands to
the relinquishment thereof.

It was a solemn moment when Viscount Ishii, bearing a great wreath of
roses and chrysanthemums, bowed reverently to the resting place of the Father
of this country, and said in tones deeply thrilled with emotion:

In the name of my gracious sovereign, the Emperor of Japan, and
representing all the liberty loving people who own his sway, I stand today
in this sacred presence — not to eulogize the name of Washington, for that
were presumption — but to offer the simple tribute of a people's reverence
and love.

Washington was an American, but America, great as she is, powerful
as she is, certain as she is of her splendid destiny, can lay no exclusive
claim to this immprtal name. Washington is now a citizen of the world;
today he belongs to all mankind. And so men come here from the ends
of the earth to honor his memory and to reiterate their faith in the prin-
ciples to which his great life was devoted.

Japan claims entrance to this holy circle. She yields to none in rever-
ence and respect; nor is there any gulf between the ancient East and the
new-born West too deep and wide for the hearts and the understandings
of her people to cross.

It is fitting, then, that men who love liberty and justice better than
they love life, that men who know what honor is, should seek this shrine,
and here, in the presence of these sacred ashes, rededicate themselves to
the service of humanity.

AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 21

It is a fitting place, at this time when all the world is filled with tur-
moil and suffering, for comrades in a holy cause to gather and here renew
their fealty to a righteous purpose, firm in the determination that the strug-
gle must go on until the world is free from menace and aggression.

Japan is proud to place herself beside her noble allies in this high
resolve, and here, in the presence of these deathless ashes, she reaffirms her
devotion to the cause and the principles for which they wage battle, fully
determined to do her whole part in securing for the world the blessings of
liberty, justice and lasting peace.

As the representative of my people, then, I place this wreath upon the
tomb of Washington with reverent hands, and in so doing it is my proud
privilege to again pledge my country to those principles of right and jus-
tice which have given immortality to the name of Washington.

As the Viscount, with a noble gesture, laid the wreath upon the tomb, the
thought that the act was indeed a consecration of national principle and a
pledge of the faith of the two peoples found expression among the onlookers.

The mansion was thoroughly and reverently inspected and the grounds
visited before the guests returned to the Mayflower for the trip to Washington.

Viscount Ishii on His Mission

The American press, characteristically anxious to have the Japanese Impe-
rial Mission declare itself upon the war issues which it would raise in confer-
ence, sought some authoritative expression. Viscount Ishii gave the Associated
Press on Monday, August 27, a brief statement defining the purposes of his
mission to the United States. The statement says:

The Imperial Japanese Mission came to the United States for two
reasons :

First, to convey to the President and to the American people the ap-
preciation and congratulation of the Emperor and the nation of Japan for
the entrance of the United States into the war as allies of Japan and the
other nations now waging war against the enemies of freedom.

Second, to determine how best to cooperate with the United States in
carrying the war to a triumphant conclusion.

Having determined in what manner Japan can use her resources and
strength to this end, it is the purpose of the Mission further to aid the
Allied cause by showing what she can do with the help and cooperation of
the United States. Japan is entirely unselfish in her aim. We are fighting
for a common end, and we wish to aid the common efforts.

Reception by the Secretary of State and Mrs. Lansing

Invitations were pouring in upon the Mission for festal occasions. Natu-
rally the Mission felt itself entirely in the hands of the State Department, and
was obliged to decline many tempting offers with regret. The garden party
given by Secretary Lansing to the Mission on the evening of Tuesday, the 28th,

22 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

however, compensated for many of the entertainments they could not attend.
It can not be better told than as David Lawrence described it next day:

America may have lavishly entertained Marshal Joffre and Arthur
James Balfour and members of other distinguished Missions which have
come to the United States since the outbreak of the war, but nothing,
really nothing, compares with the brilliancy of the reception given Viscount
Ishii and the Japanese Mission.

Last night's reception and garden party at the Pan American Union
Building, given by the Secretary of State and Mrs. Lansing and attended
by the President and Mrs. Wilson, was the most elaborate ever given in the
national capital. The country's most distinguished society was in attend-
ance. The beautiful Pan American Building was brilliantly illuminated
and decorated, and the Aztec Garden and Venetian Pool of the grounds
were beautifully adorned with vari-colored lights casting rainbows across
the waters. The gardens were hung with rows of Japanese lanterns. The
outside stairways from the building to the gardens had an artistic touch in
the green feathery foliage, with tall bunches of white hydrangea in grace-
ful baskets hung from the balustrades. Small tables were set on the ter-
race overlooking the Aztec Garden. A military band played. The weather
was ideal. Diplomats of all nations, high officials, Senators and Represen-
tatives, members of the numerous war boards and their wives, passed
through the patio to the gardens, where supper was served.

The President and Mrs. Wilson arrived about ten o'clock. The band
played the national anthem. The Presidential party flanked by military
and naval aides walked slowly through the ballroom to the gardens. Mrs.
Wilson was particularly handsome in a gown of black lace and tulle, re-
lieved by a modish sash of orange tulle over one shoulder and fastened at
the waistline in a bow. She carried a large orange colored ostrich feather
fan.

The Japanese were delighted with the reception given them. It was
by far the most beautiful of all the state functions given thus far to the
foreign missions.

At the Navy Yard

A visit to the Washington Navy Yard by Vice Admiral Takeshita, Major
General Sugano, and the other naval and military members of the Imperial
Mission, helped to fill Wednesday, the 29th. They were escorted by high naval
officers and were much interested in the guns under construction and in the
relics of naval wars of the past.

Before the United States Senate

The visit to the Senate, which had been arranged by Senator Saulsbury,
was scheduled for Thursday, the 30th, and became the occasfon of a great
friendly demonstration. The galleries were crowded, and few Senators were

AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 23

missing from their seats. The visitors were received with great ceremony.
They entered the main door and were escorted down the centre aisle while the
entire audience arose. The audience also arose before and after Viscount Ishii's
address, and as the Mission left the chamber after shaking hands with Senators
and Representatives.

Senator Willard Saulsbury of Delaware, acting as President pro tempore
of the Senate, in the absence of Vice President Marshall, received the guests,
conducting Viscount Ishii to a seat beside him on the right of the President
of the Senate, and Ambassador Sato to a seat on the left. There was much
applause as Senator Saulsbury arose.

He said:

Senators, we are highly honored today by the presence of these distin-
guished guests, who come to us representing the most ancient and powerful
Empire of the world. We have met here before and welcomed the distin-
guished missions from other great nations. Heroic Belgium, historic Italy,
great Russia, beloved France, and democratic Britain have sent to us of
their best, but to none have we extended a more cordial welcome than today
we give to the representatives of great Nippon, that beautiful land of an-
cient tradition and passionate patriotism.

A mighty nation is the ancient Empire of Japan. Its youtn renewed,
it joins our great young nation in pledging anew a continuance of our old
friendship, which the trouble maker of the earth has tried s6 hard to inter-
rupt. We now know how industriously insidious attempts have been made
by the Prussian masters of the German people to bring about distrust and
hatred in the world. We know what evil attempts they have made to
breed hatred and distrust of us among our friends, and we welcome this
opportunity to heartily congratulate our old friends who honor us today
that by the capture of Tsing Tau and the German islands in the Pacific
Japan has completely removed from the far eastern world the only threat,
as we believe, to peace and prosperity, the only threat to lasting peace in
eastern Asia.

Within the memory of living man Prussians have provoked four wars
for conquest and in three succeeded. Their fourth attempt has roused the
world to unified, concerted action.

The yellow peril was made in Germany, and Shangtung was seized;
the Slav peril was made in Germany, and Serbia was overwhelmed and
Russia was invaded; but the thick-witted, smug, self-centered supermen of
Germany entering their last attempt at conquest have roused a real peril —
a real peril to themselves — and the free nations that believe in international
honor, in the, binding force of treaties, and in the pledged word are grimly
though so sorrowfully engaged in creating, perfecting, and bringing to suc-
cessful issue an alliance for the benefit of all earth's people, which will pro-
tect the rights of nations, small and great, and enable them to lead their
lives in peace, and lead them unafraid. This alliance we and the other free
nations of the earth are creating to control the disturbers of the peace of

24 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

the world, and it is now succeeding. The alliance we create is based on
the brotherhood of man, the equal rights of men and nations. It is based
on the universal kindly instincts of the human heart, no matter whether
that heart beats in an eastern or a western breast, no matter where free
men live, in America or Asia, in South Africa, in Europe, or in South
America. The alliance we create is directed against and threatens only
wrong, inhumanity, and injustice. It threatens only rapacity, greed, hypoc-
risy, and nationalized brutality. It threatens only military autocracy and
the violators of treaties who disregard the pledged honor of nations. Our
alliance is indeed a peril, but only to the new pirates of the seas, to the
assassins of the air; to those who violate international decency and fair
dealing, who misuse the forces of developed science and distort the teach-
ings of philosophy, who would destroy civilization itself in the effort to
accomplish world domination.

This peril our alliance has created is the peril to the central European
powers, but it bears no color label. It is and will be in the future the
common glory of all true men of all free nations everywhere to have joined
in its creation and success. It is an Anglo-French-Slav-Italian-Japanese-
American peril to the misdemeanant of the world. Allies in east and west
are joined together to bring back lasting peace to a disordered and war-sick
world. Let us renew our time honored friendship with clasped hands and
good wishes for the peaceful, friendly development of both our nations and
assure poor, stricken Europe that this western Republic and eastern Em-
pire, together in friendly accord, will work for the good of all humanity.

This Congress has pledged all the resources of our great country to
our common cause, the curbing of international rapacity and hate and
barbarism.

Senators, I have never believed there was more than a jingling rhyme
in the phrase that "east is east and west is west and never the two shall
meet," and we are happy today, while honoring our distinguished guests, to
demonstrate to the world that there is no east and there is no west when
strong men come together as friends, though they come from the ends of
the earth, determined in friendly alliance to work out right and justice for
themselves and all earth's peoples.

Let us never permit hereafter that evil tongues or wicked propaganda
shall cause even the simplest minded among- our people to forget the ancient
friendship of our nations or weaken the ties of mutual respect and regard
in which we hold each other. This meeting today symbolizes complete in-
ternational fraternity which common consciousness of international honor
has brought about. Let it be eternal !

I have the honor of presenting to the Senators of the United States
the most distinguished of our visitors, His Excellency Viscount Ishii, chief
of the Mission from Imperial Japan.

Viscount Ishii arose and said:

Mr. President and gentlemen of the Senate of the United States, no
words at my command can give adequate expression to the profound ap-

AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 25

preciation I have of this honor you confer upon us. We know full well
the exalted dignity and the proud traditions of this illustrious branch of
the great Legislature qf the United States; and in the name of my coun-
try, my Mission, and myself, I thank you most sincerely. To accept your
courteous invitation and to occupy even the smallest fraction of the time
allowed for the momentous deliberations of this august body is a great
responsibility — a responsibility I do not underestimate, but from which I
may not shrink.

I shall not, however, abuse this rare privilege by attempting to address
at length, in a language of which I have but little command, trained leaders
of thought and masters of argument and oratory. But I grasp this occa-
sion to say to you that the whole people of Japan heartily welcome and
profoundly appreciate the entrance of this mighty nation of yours into the
struggle against the insane despoiler of our civilization. We all know that
you did not undertake this solemn task on the impulse of the moment, but
that you threw your mighty weight into the struggle only after exercising
a most admirable patience, with a firm determination that this world shall
be made free from the threat of aggression from the black shadow of a
military despotism wielded by a nation taught with the mother's milk that
human right must yield to brutal might. To us, the fact that you are now
on the side of the Allies in this titanic struggle constitutes already a great
moral victory for our common cause, which we believe to be the cause of
right and justice, for the strong as for the weak, for the great as for the
small.

We of Japan believe we understand something of the American ideal
of life, and we pay our most profound respects to it. Jefferson, your great
democratic President, conceived the ideal of an American commonwealth
to be not a rule imposed on the people by force of arms, but as a free ex-
pression of the individual sentiments of that people. Jefferson saw Amer-
icans not as a set of people huddled together under the muzzles of machine
guns, but he saw them as a myriad of independent and free men, as indi-
viduals only relying on a combined military force for protection against
aggression from abroad or treachery from within. He saw a community
of people guided by a community of good thought and pure patriotism,
using their own special talents in their own special way under their own
sacred roof trees ; not a machine made nation, but a living, growing organ-
ism, animated by one passion — the passion of liberty.

I assure you, gentlemen, that the Japanese ideal of national life is, in
its final analysis, not so very far removed from yours. We conceive of our
nation as a vast family, held together not by the arbitrary force of armed
men, but by the force of a natural development. We shall call the common
force that animates us a passion of loyalty to our Emperor and to our
homes, as we shall call that of Americans a passion for liberty and of
loyalty to their flag.

Blind loyalty without rational consciousness of the responsibility of
self is but another name for slavery, while a right of liberty ill conceived,
ignoring ^ the mutual human affection and respect for the rights of every
man, which form the essence of true loyalty, must be tantamount to anarchy.
These two passions — passion of loyalty and passion for liberty — are they

26 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

not really one? Is not the same control working in both cases — the intense
desire to be true to our innermost selves and to the highest and best that
has been revealed to us? You must be free to be Americans and we must
be free to be Japanese. But our common enemy is not content with this
freedom for the nation or for the individual ; he must force all the world
to be German, too! You had hoped against hope that this was not so;
but that noble hope fled and your admirable patience was exhausted. You
did not then hesitate to face the issue and the foe, as you are facing it,
with that great American spirit which has loved and still loves liberty,
which loves the right more than peace and honor more than life.

We of Japan took up arms against Germany because a solemn treaty was
not to us "a scrap of paper." We did not enter into this war because we
had any selfish interest to promote or any ill conceived ambition to gratify.
We are in the war, we insist on being in it, and we shall stay in it, because
earnestly, as a nation and as individuals, we believe in the righteousness of
the cause for which we stand; because we believe that only by a complete
victory for that cause can there be made a righteous, honorable, and per-
manent peace, so that this world may be made safe for all men to live in
and so that all nations may work out their destinies untrammeled by fear.

Mr. President and gentlemen, whatever the critic half informed or the
hired slanderer may say against us, in forming your judgment of Japan we
ask you only to use those splendid abilities that guide this, great nation.
The criminal plotter against our good neighborhood takes advantage of the
fact that at this time of the world's crisis many things must of necessity
remain untold and unrecorded in the daily newspapers ; but we are satisfied
that we are doing our best. In this tremendous work, as we move together,
shoulder to shoulder, to a certain victory, America and Japan must have
many things in which the one can help the other. We have much in com-
mon and much to do in concert. That is the reason I have been sent and
that is the reason you have received me here today.

I have an earnest and abiding faith that this association of ours, this
proving of ourselves in the highest, most sacred, and most trying of human
activities — the armed vindication of right and justice — must bring us to a
still closer concord and a deeper confidence one in the other, sealing for all
time the bonds of cordial friendship between our two nations.

Again I thank you.

Mr. Saulsbury said: The special ambassador from Japan and the
Japanese ambassador to Washington will be glad to receive the Senators
and their guests upon the floor as they desire to be presented.

The members of the Japanese Mission took their places at the left of the
Vice President's desk, and the members of the Senate were presented to them
by the committee appointed by the President pro tempore.

Before the House of Representatives

Presentation to the House of Representatives was reserved for the after-
noon of Wednesday, September 5. Again a great audience awaited the Impe-

AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 27

rial Mission, crowding the galleries, the diplomatic gallery notably, as well as
rilling the seats of the Representatives. The Speaker, Mr. Clark, was in the chair.
Announcing a committee to wait on the Japanese commissioners and conduct
them into the hall, as consisting of Mr. Flood, Mr. Linthicum and Mr. Goodwin
of Arkansas, he declared that the House stood in recess.

Almost immediately thereafter the members of the Japanese Mission, es-
corted by the committee appointed by the Speaker, entered the chamber and
were announced to the House by the Sergeant at Arms. The members of the
Mission were: Viscount Ishii, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary;
Vice Admiral Takeshita, Imperial Japanese Navy; Major General Sugano, Im-
perial Japanese Army ; Mr. Masanao Hanihara, Consul General at San Fran-
cisco; Mr. Matsuzo Nagai, Secretary of the Foreign Office; Commander Ando,
Imperial Japanese Navy; Lieutenant Colonel Tanikawa, Imperial Japanese
Army ; Mr. Tadanao Imai, Vice Consul ; and Mr. Owaku.

Mr. Aimaro Sato, Ambassador from Japan to the government of the United
States ; Mr. Tokichi Tanaka, Counselor of the Embassy ; Captain Nomura, Naval
Attache; and Lieutenant Colonel Mizumachi, Military Attache, accompanied the
Mission into the House, together with Mr. Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant
Secretary of State; Brigadier General James A. Irons, United States Army;
Captain C. C. Marsh, United States Navy; and Mr. A. B. Ruddock, of the
State Department, personally attached to Viscount Ishii.

Viscount Ishii was seated on the right of the Speaker and Ambassador
Sato upon his left.

The Speaker: Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, Japan is
one of the oldest countries in the world, and yet it is the very newest of
the great powers of the world. The history of Japan extends back into
the twilight of fable. In ancient times there were seven things selected
that were denominated the wonders of the world. Nearly all of them have
gone. The historian of the times in which we live will rank the remark-
able and astounding progress of the Empire of Japan as one of the seven
wonders of these times.

The Empire of Japan is our nearest western neighbor. She holds one
side of the Pacific and we hold the other, and every right thinking man in
the Empire of Japan and in the Republic of the United States hopes that
peace, amity, and friendly relations will always prevail between these two
great powers.

Within the last few months we have had visiting commissions from
France, Great Britain, Belgium, Russia, and Italy, and now we have the
Japanese Mission. I present to this magnificent audience Viscount Ishii,
the head of the Mission from Japan.

Viscount Ishii, rising and bowing, said:

28 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives, I thank
you most sincerely for this gracious reception. The rare opportunity thus
afforded to me is deeply appreciated throughout the nation I have the
honor to represent. I bring a message, borne by us across an ocean and a
continent, from the Emperor and the people of our beloved island, set in
the far eastern Pacific, to the President of the United States and to you,
the representatives of the greatest republic on earth today, a potent factor
in the most stupendous and, we must believe, the final struggle for liberty
throughout the world.

Our message reiterates an assurance of unchanged sincerity of friend-
ship well understood by the people of the United States, but it is a message
which has never found opportunity such as this for delivery. Your cour-
teous permission for us to occupy a place on this historic rostrum and to
speak within the hearing, in fact, of the hundred millions of people of the
United States of America carries with it a forceful manifestation of the
sentiment which we believe the United States entertain toward my country.

We would not have traveled 10,000 miles merely to repeat what must
have sufficiently impressed itself upon you, but that within the last few
months a new day has dawned — a day welcomed indeed by us. It follows
upon another when you, with magnificent forbearance, endured great wrongs
and outrages in the hope that recourse to the sword might be avoided. It
was a day in which you bore the pitiless cruelty of the wilful aggressor of
all human rights — bore it bravely and with fortitude until the star of hope
vanished and toleration ceased to be a virtue. Then, in the dawning of
this day, you arose and threw your mighty forces into the balance against
the wrong in favor of the right. In this dawning the Stars and Stripes
flung across the skies were entwined with the emblem of the Rising Sun,
and so commenced the brighter day. That is why we are here. We come
to bring to you the message of our Emperor, which gives you assurance
of the comradeship and the cooperation of Japan throughout this day. We
are here to say that, with tne other Allies, we heartily welcome the advent
of the United States in the fields of France and elsewhere. We recognize
the great uplift given to humanity and the promise of a physical victory
doubly insured by the most momentous decision you have taken.

We bring to you assurance of support, unselfish, without a motive
other than the common force that drives us all today. We of Japan face
the task seriously and with determination. We recognize the grim and
unrelenting order we all must obey. We know that the desperate foe of
civilization must be met by self-sacrifice, counsel, and unsleeping watchful-
ness. We are here to say that Japan has done and will do what may be
demanded of her to the utmost of her resources and to the best of her
ability.

Yours are vast resources; ours may be small, but we can say to you
that the spirit of Japan burns as ardently and will last as long as may be
demanded in this war. We are eager for counsel with you. We come to
find out how these two nations can best coordinate their energies and their
resources; how best they can cooperate in the conduct and the winning of
this war. We come to say to you that we are proud on this day to stand
shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of America. In the field and in the

AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 29

household; in the mine and in the shop, the men and the women of Japan
are working and will work with a greater confidence and a higher sense of
moral obligation.

Japan has exerted herself with the spirit of loyalty to her allies, her
Emperor, and to her homes, following the ideals of our national life, to
which I alluded when I had the honor of addressing your Senate a few
days ago. Japan will continue to add her quota to the sacrifice which alone
can insure a victory. Like the people of America, those of Japan have
remained permanently independent because of a real patriotism which, when
the occasion demands, never fails. We, like you, protect ourselves against
aggression from without and treachery from within. We, like you, know
nothing of tyranny and despotism; and we, like you, stand determined that
malignance and oppression from the conqueror, imposed upon the con-
quered, shall not become the lot of our people. Neither shall our families
and our homes be violated and desecrated by the licentious and brutal forces
of evil now trampling upon' the helpless women and children of the coun-
tries they have overrun.

Treachery from within, indeed, at this hour, calls for our attention.
While your soldiers leave their families and their homes to fight on the
blood stained fields of France, we must guard our landmarks, as you will
guard yours, against treachery that has found hiding places in our midst
and which for the last ten years has sown the seeds of discord between us.
Let it be a part of our cooperation and coordination to protect each other
from these forces of evil which lack even the poorest courage of an open
enemy.

Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Representatives, we have
been climbing a mountain toward the stars by different and sometimes
devious pathways, but near the summit our roads shall join, and together
we shall win into the full sunlight above the clouds. We shall pass safely
through the dangerous places. Our blood shall not have been shed and
our sacrifice shall not have been made in vain, for we shall be among the
nations of a world living in a brotherhood of peace. Will it not then be
a source of intense national pride to each of us to remember this day which
must insure a permanent maintenance of these renewed pledges of com-
radeship and of cooperation?

I again wish to express my sincere appreciation of the honor you have
done us.

The members of the Mission then took their places on the right of the
Speaker's rostrum, and the members of the House of Representatives were
presented to them.

The distinguished visitors were then escorted from the hall of the House.

Every remark touching on the friendly relations of the two countries, made
by either the Speaker, Mr. Clark, or by Viscount Ishii, precipitated tremendous
applause. One reference to continued peace between the two nations threw the
House into an outburst that lasted several minutes.

Speaker Clark's declaration that the rise of Japan must be considered one

30 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

of the seven wonders of the world, made some of the Southern members so
enthusiastic that they indulged in rebel yells, much to the surprise but evident
delight of the commissioners.

Dinner at Gray stone

Mr. Judah H. Sears of the Shipping Board entertained at dinner on the
evening of Friday, September 11, at Graystone, his residence on Klingle Road,
in compliment to Viscount Ishii and his confreres. The dinner was served at
small tables placed in the pergola and on the terraced lawn, which was strung
with vari-colored electric lights, outlining trees and shrubs and making a net-
work overhead. The Japanese and American flags and the national colors of
Japan adorned the pergola, where the guests of honor were seated. In the
absence of Mrs. Sears in the Adirondacks, Mrs. Peter Goelet Gerry, wife of
Senator Gerry of Rhode Island, acted as hostess. Informal dancing followed
in the drawing rooms and a delightful musical program was given.

V
PHILADELPHIA'S WELCOME

The city of Philadelphia had the happy thought of giving a day to the
Imperial Japanese Mission on September 15, and had prepared a train of festal
events, naturally beginning with a visit to Independence Hall, the cradle of the
government of the United States and the shrine of the Liberty Bell. The train
bearing the visitors arrived in Philadelphia from Washington at 11:36 a.m.
They were met at Broad Street Station by Mayor Thomas B. Smith and a
reception committee, following which they were escorted in automobiles down
Chestnut Street to Independence Hall. Besides Viscount Ishii there were
Ambassador Sato and other members of the Special Mission.

Accompanying the Japanese were Brigadier General James A. Irons and
Captain C. C. Marsh, United States Army; Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant
Secretary of State, and J. M. Nye, of the Department of State.

Ambassador Morris's Welcome

After a brief word of welcome from Mayor Smith, Ambassador Morris,
the newly appointed United States envoy to Japan, was introduced. He said :

I am deeply grateful to His Honor, the Mayor, for granting me the
privilege of thus supplementing his official welcome. This occasion has, as
you can realize, Mr. Ambassador, a peculiar significance to me. I am so
proud to speak a word of welcome to you and your fellow members of
the Japanese Imperial Mission on this spot which is so rich in historic asso-
ciations and which to us is the visible symbol of those ideals and aspira-
tions which have been the impelling force of our national life.

We are standing on the very spot where those heroic men who laid
the enduring foundations of our federal government counseled together.
We feel that we can catch something of the vision of human liberty which
they preserved and which they endeavored to express for the guidance
of future generations in the instruments of government which they here
drafted.

The men who here declared this people's independence and here wrought
out the fabric of a more stable government had no narrow nor selfish pur-
pose. The notes of the bell above us, which was cast that it might pro-
claim liberty throughout the world, found responsive echo in the aspira-
tions which they nourished. They were struggling to realize not rights
for themselves, but a heritage for the world; a heritage which should

32 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

assure for all peoples the rights which they claimed for themselves — the
right of independent national existence ; the right to develop their insti-
tutions as their national spirit and traditions should dictate and save from
aggressive interference of ambitious nations.

How seriously this heritage is now threatened, how ruthlessly these
ideals are now challenged, we all profoundly realize, as we contemplate the
fevered energy of all our people as they prepare not only to proclaim liberty
throughout the world, but to fight for liberty throughout the world. We are
proud, Mr. Ambassador, that we can stand side by side with your nation and
your people in this fight ; that the friendship which has united our countries
for so many years can be deepened and strengthened by our union in this
common purpose, and that in this simple building which is hallowed in our
hearts by the ideals of human liberty which found expression here we can
rededicate ourselves to the preservation of this heritage.

Viscount Ishii arose, and with evident emotion, replied:

Mr. Mayor: It is with a sense not only of great personal pride but
of deep responsibility that I stand on this historic spot in this great city
whose very name carries with it the fundamental ideal of the highest
thought among all the nations in the world to make response to a welcome
to my Mission so eloquently voiced by one who worthily represents your
city and your state. We are glad that he will represent your nation in
the capital of Japan. Let me assure you that this welcome will find re-
sponse in the hearts of my countrymen when His Excellency, the Ambas-
sador of the United States, arrives in Japan, and that we shall endeavor
always to demonstrate by deeds, and not by words so poorly at my com-
mand, our appreciation of Philadelphia and of Pennsylvania. We already
owe much to Pennsylvania men. Philadelphia has placed us under fur-
ther obligations.

I am so impressed and moved by these surroundings, so overwhelmed
by your kindness, that I am unable to give expression to the thoughts which
must spring to the mind of every man who stands in this hall under the
mantle and the shadow of this great bell which first summoned the spirit of
freedom in this republic and whose glorious tones have never ceased to
resound throughout civilization.

I have tried to impress upon you through your representatives in the
halls of Congress the fact that in Japan the true spirit of individual liberty
and of freedom for the nation burns as brightly as it does in America. It
seems to me that there could be no more fitting opportunity than this to
assure you that our ideals and our hopes run alongside of yours. The
whole world answers the summons to uphold freedom and liberty from
oppression and from wrong. The force that moved this great bell of yours
to sound the alarm in 1776 is the same human force that brings the call
to us today. It was and is the force that rings in the right and rings out
the wrong. In its tones there is no discordant note; certainly there is no
lack pf harmony as its sound waves beat upon our shores. The purpose
of my Mission was and is to tell you this and only this — that we stand
with you and will stand with you throughout the struggle for liberty and

PHILADELPHIA S WELCOME

33

for freedom, and that we will rejoice with you when this bell shall again
ring the proclamation of a righteous peace as it rang one hundred and
thirty-four years ago.

For myself and in the name of my Mission and my country I thank
you.

After leaving Independence Hall the visitors rode north on Fifth Street
to Market and westward around City Hall to Broad Street. A detail of mounted
police and the Police Band led the procession. Manufacturers and business
men were waiting to exchange greetings with the envoys at the Manufac-
turers' Club upon their arrival there at one o'clock.

Chamber of Commerce Luncheon

The local Japanese Society had joined with the Manufacturers' Club in
according a reception to Viscount Ishii and the others of the Imperial Mission.
At its conclusion the party reentered their autos and were driven to the Bellevue-
Stratford Hotel, where a very large company awaited them. The occasion was
a luncheon of over three hundred covers tendered by the municipality under
the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce. Vari-colored Japanese lanterns,
with Japanese fronded palms, and the soft glow of subdued lights made a pic-
turesque setting for the gathering in the large ballroom. An orchestra behind
the palms played the Japanese national anthem, selections from the "Mikado,"
and other music suggestive of the land of sunshine and cherry trees. Over
two hundred ladies in bright summer costumes made the balcony beautiful.

Mayor Thomas B. Smith arose, amid applause, and said:

We have been greatly honored during the past few months by visits
of distinguished delegations representing great foreign nations — our allies.
The first of the number was the French Mission, headed by the eminent
statesman and financier Viviani and the soldier idol of France, Marshal
Joffre. The second was the Italian Mission, headed by the urbane Arlotta
and the justly popular Marconi, and then followed the visit of the Mission
headed by the sympathetic Baron Moncheur and the picturesque Major
Le Clare, representing heroic little Belgium.

As I said to those splendid men so do I say to our distinguished guests
of today: Philadelphia, the mother city of the republic, welcomes you with
all her heart. While each of the visits referred to — and this one as well —
will have their place in history, to me this day has greater interest than
any of the others, because we are on the eve of parting from one of our
most valued citizens — a man admired and respected by all who know him.
He goes to your fair land as ambassador of our President to the Court of
the Mikado. I know I voice the sentiments of my fellow citizens when
I express the hope that the ambassador from this City of Brotherly Love
may develop during his residence in Japan stronger bonds of friendship
between our two great nations than have ever existed in times past.

34 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Let us drink to the health of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of
Japan. Glasses were lifted silently.

Mr. Ernest T. Trigg, President of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce,
as toastmaster now welcomed the Imperial Japanese Mission, and asked Am-
bassador Morris to add a few thoughts. Mr. Morris said:

I feel that I can add nothing to the warm welcome which we of Phila-
delphia have expressed to our distinguished guests, as voiced by His Honor
the Mayor, and by the President of the Chamber of Commerce. I am,
however, happy to have this opportunity to express here among my fellow
Philadelphians the great satisfaction it gives me personally to join in this
welcome on the eve of my departure for Japan, where I hope I may be able
to convey to that great and progressive people something of that spirit
of friendship and admiration which has been shown at this luncheon.

I am particularly grateful to His Excellency Viscount Ishii and the
other members of the Mission for timing their visits so thoughtfully that
their stay in Washington exactly corresponded to the period of my instruc-
tion as required by the rules of our diplomatic service. It is seldom that
one starting on his mission has such a rare opportunity to learn his first
lessons from instructors so experienced and so well equipped.

I wish that the Mission could have given us more time so that we
might show them at close range the industrial life which is represented
here. But even had they time to look beyond this gathering and to see
the varied activities which it represents, I fear they have little to learn
from us. We all know something (I hope soon to know more) of the
extraordinary development of the industrial life of Japan, of its civic spirit,
arid its progressive municipal governments. My hope is, now that our
two nations have been bound together in the great enterprise of this world
war, we may from this close association of action develop a spirit of mutual
understanding and cooperation which will knit us closely together in the
far greater industrial and commercial enterprises of peace. To that end
I shall pledge my best efforts in the delightful task that I am about to
undertake.

Viscount Ishii arose at a signal from the toastmaster, and bowing to the
outburst of applause, at once launched into his address, which was frequently
punctuated with handclapping. He said:

Mr. President and gentlemen of the Philadelphia Chamber of Com-
merce : I am deeply moved by the eloquence of this welcome. This recep-
tion and hospitality from the sons of William Penn is not indeed unex-
pected, for we know much about you ; but the occasion is remarkable and
most impressive. We are glad of the opportunity to meet such a gather-
ing of leaders in your commercial life, and at such a time, as your guests,
to be given this opportunity to speed .a parting son whom we, when our
work here is over, will meet again in our own land and to whom we will
gladly do honor.

PHILADELPHIA'S WELCOME 35

I have willing tribute to pay to Pennsylvania on behalf of Japan, and
this occasion only adds to the obligation which I regret to say I can only
pay in part. Of the many sons of this good state who have made their
homes among us in Japan, none grew closer to our hearts than your late
ambassador, Mr. George W. Guthrie, whose untimely death was a loss to
your country and to ours. We shall always honor his memory as our
friend and a great American.

And now another Pennsylvanian goes to represent America among
us, naturally a source of much gratification. Be assured, Sir, (turning to
Ambassador Morris) that we shall endeavor to make your path a pleasant
and an easy one to tread. We shall endeavor to demonstrate to you that
Japan is your friend and that the message I have brought comes from the
hearts of my countrymen.

In this place and in this distinguished presence I can only ask you to
recall the words already spoken by me elsewhere on many occasions, and
to believe that they convey my message and my purpose plainly, fully and
without reserve.

Japan and America have been the victims of a vicious campaign of
slander and intrigue as dastardly and as horrible indeed as the black record
of German crimes on the Atlantic, in Belgium, or in France can show.
But we are wide awake now to the danger, and in this as in other fields of
active warfare against our common enemy we will in future stand closer
together because of the experiences of the past.

Our nations and their opportunity have met in this solemn hour, the
hour for the real test of friendship. We are linked together and we will
fight together for that liberty, the name and value of which none knows
better than the people who claim the birthright of this state.

National unity is always paramount, and international amity is depen-
dent upon that unity well conceived. America and Japan, each as a united
nation, can aid the other, and together we can help ourselves and our
neighbors to better and happier things, so that our sons may dwell together
in peace insured by self-reliance, mutual respect and perfect confidence,
which, like the great ideal of William Penn, shall make all mankind of kin.

Mr. Ambassador, you will permit me on behalf of my Mission and
myself, to wish you bon voyage across the ocean, a pleasant journey and a
long stay. I commend my countrymen to your high consideration, as we
have ventured to commend you to them. I thank you.

As the Viscount closed, the guests arose in a body, applauding heartily.
Turning to Ambassador Morris, the United States army officers and the hon-
ored* guests, Viscount Ishii proposed a toast to the President of the United
States.

While the orchestra struck up. the "Star Spangled Banner/' a light was
thrown upon two small Japanese girls and a boy standing in the balcony over-
looking the tables. The daughters of Nippon were dressed in the Japanese
court costume and the boy was garbed in white. They sang the national anthem
and followed this with "America."

36 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Ambassador Sato was now called upon by the toastmaster. He said :

Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen: Having been educated in America,
having begun my diplomatic career in your beautiful capital on the bank
of the Potomac, and having had later occasion to frequently visit your
great country, I may be allowed to say that I am not altogether a stranger
with the American people. However, never before have I seen among
them such show of patriotism and unity of purpose as I see it now wher-
ever I go. It is indeed an inspiring and soul stirring spectacle that men
in all walks of life are cheerfully and eagerly responding to the bugle call
of the nation. The Americans are at their best.

I am especially happy to notice that in these days the bonds of friend-
ship between our two peoples have been strengthened by leaps and bounds.
It is very gratifying that in our international fellowship a new era of
mutual confidence and reciprocal helpfulness is dawning. The way the
Japanese War Mission is being received in this country speaks more elo-
quently than words of the cordial sentiment entertained in the breast
of the American people toward their western neighbor whom I have the
honor to represent. With this harmony within your own borders, with
this harmony between our two nations, and with the harmony existing
among the powers aligned on our side, we are bound to win the war. And
it is a great satisfaction to feel that in this great war we represent the
cause of righteousness, liberty and civilization.

We are loath to think of the holocaust of blood and treasure engulfed
by the dismal maelstrom. But let it be, if it must. We have been and
are taking our share of the sacrifice to the full measure of ability. It now
requires merely coordination of our energy for a fatal blow to be dealt
upon our common enemy. We, who believe in the bright golden future of
humanity where justice and peace will reign supreme, shall do well to
stand ready to pay no small price toward the consummation of this sublime
end.

It is enormously encouraging to perceive that the people who are free,
honorable and most peace loving are the sturdiest when they are called
upon to vindicate their cause by recourse to arms.

The United States has always fought its battles to secure peace and
freedom. Japan has always waged her foreign wars in order to defend
her country and people. And now, together, we fight against a common
enemy for the cause of humanity and civilization. A league of peace loving
nations, a concert of free and honorable peoples, is ensuring the victory
of the higher character in humanity, is going to strengthen man's belief in
man's real value. A dead Douglas of Scotland won a battle. I am confi-
dent then that the pealing of the broken Bell of Liberty, peacefully resonant
throughout the world, will seal the fate of the malign foe of humanity and
usher in the bright day of peace on earth and good will among men.

In the evening the members of the Mission were the guests of Ambassador
Morris at a private dinner in the Bellevue-Stratford.

PHILADELPHIA'S WELCOME 37

Symposium of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Following the ambassador's dinner, the members of the Mission attended
the symposium of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in the
Witherspoon Building. There was a large attendance. It was Ambassador
Morris who once more gave a word of introduction to the Viscount as follows:

"From war, pestilence and famine, Good Lord, deliver us," has been
the pleading prayer of mankind through countless generations. As Mr.
Ralph A. Graves tells in a recent article, "Grim, gaunt and loathsome, like
the three fateful sisters of Greek mythology, war, famine and pestilence
have decreed untimely death for the hosts of the earth since the beginning
of time." For over three years we have increasingly felt the baneful in-
fluence of an all but worldwide war. Soberly, earnestly and with no selfish
principle, but with undaunted determination, our own country has entered
this war to make certain that human liberty "shall not perish from the
earth." To this cause we have dedicated without reservation our manhood,
our national wealth, and our individual energies. But what of pestilence
and famine with which human experience has linked war in its trinity of
evils ?

Modern science has grappled with pestilence and has thus far gained
•a victory, which it seems to me must rank among the greatest achieve-
ments of the human intellect. Just consider it a moment. For three years
millions of men have been herded together under conditions of living im-
possible adequately to picture; have been shot to pieces by bullets, shat-
tered by shrapnel and shell, seared by liquid fire, and suffocated by poison-
ous gases ; have existed in narrow cramping trenches, at times withered by
an almost tropical sun; at others, chilled to the marrow by a biting arctic
wind ; and yet, thus far have been mercifully spared from the added horrors
of that spectre of pestilence which for ages has haunted the imagination
of mankind. As we think on these things may we not reverently bow our
heads in gratitude to those heroic pioneers of science who in the past have
again given their all that mankind might know the secrets of disease, and
also to that noble army of doctors (some from our own city) who tonight
are holding at bay the ever impending spectre of pestilence which constantly
threatens that far flung battle-line in Europe.

And famine! Yes; it, too, threatens the world, and we are here
tonight to take counsel once more how this third evil may be averted. To
the United States of America more than to any other of the Allies this
question comes with impelling force. We have ever held that this vast and
fertile land, developed by the vision and energy of our liberty loving
pioneers, is a sacred trust to be administered for the benefit of mankind.
So, when the test came and our President asked us, "Are you ready, now
that liberty is threatened and our brothers call, to make good the unselfish
professions of a century?" the answer came in one great chorus from every
corner of our land, "We are ready."

It is because of this response that the wealth of our favored land and
the manhood of our nation are now dedicated in one supreme effort to

38 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

curb forever that spirit of aggression which threatens the right of every
liberty loving nation to develop its own traditions and conserve its own
national life.

We have one great contribution to make to this great task. We must
conserve, so that we may give freely of our food resources to our allies
and thus meet their pressing needs. How this may best be done has been
the central theme of the conference now drawing to its close, and we are
fortunate to have with us distinguished representatives of our allies who
are here to add their vital word to this discussion. Our fertile fields, our
natural resources, our comparatively small population, have all tended, I
fear, to make us an extravagant nation. No necessity up to this moment
has forced us to give due thought to the needs of economy and conserva-
tion. The problem is a new one to us. We must learn the lesson; and
where could we better first turn for instruction than to that Island Empire
with its experience of thousands of years, which has learned through that
experience to overcome the limitations which nature has imposed upon it,
and through economy and thrift, by the use of every square foot of avail-
able'land, and by the saving of every ounce of product, has reared a great
Empire, developed a far reaching civilization, and given to the world ah
art and a literature which has made a profound impress on the standards
of every other nation.

We are so proud to have with us tonight — and I 'esteem it a peculiar
privilege to present in my home city — the distinguished Ambassador on
Special Mission from that great nation to which but recently I have had
the honor to be accredited, His Excellency Viscount Ishii.

The Viscount on rising received a warm round of applause, which he
acknowledged with a gratified smile, and proceeded:

Mr. President, Your Excellency, and gentlemen: I am embarrassed
by the honor you have done me in thus inviting me into a discussion inter-
esting and of great value to all the world, but in which my part must be
little more than a digression. Nevertheless, it would be unbecoming in me
should I fail to avail myself of your courtesy and make an effort to inject
some remarks which may perhaps throw light upon a situation and a con-
dition foreign to the surroundings in which I find myself. As the repre-
sentative of my Emperor and my countrymen, I came to tell the govern-
ment and the people of the United States in all sincerity and earnestness
that, in this great and fearsome struggle in which we are all engaged, the
East and the West must meet and labor together for the benefit of human-
ity, and that Japan is prepared to save and sacrifice more in order that as
a nation she may live. We in Japan have not been idle during the heat
of the day so far. In our own small way we have endeavored to do, and
we believe have done, our best as we saw what we had to do. But we do
not underestimate the further task before us, and we realize that the future
may demand further self-sacrifice and conservation of our resources, all for
the common good in cooperation with our allies.

We have had special opportunity for the last month to see some-

PHILADELPHIA'S WELCOME 39

thing of the vast machinery and resources at the command of this country
and to realize how much from its surplus there is to spare, and how much
can be conserved as the time of stress continues. America has lived in
magnificent luxury. America has had at its command food and raw ma-
terial undreamed of in Japan. Indeed, you have little idea how small is
the margin between plenty and want in the country from which I come,
or how great has been our sacrifice to the cause of national existence.

I have noticed while I have been here discussions in the magazines
and newspaper press of this country on the "vast increasing wealth of
Japan." I am inclined to think that these publicists really know but little
of the subject with which they deal. In comparison with yours, the so
called "wealth of Japan" sinks into insignificance. The food problem with
us is not serious, for it is solved by frugality. It is true that our people
are not in want, because their requirements are limited to the barest neces-
sities of life. We have a very small area of food producing country from
which to draw, and by necessity every bit of it is most intensively cultivated.
The food of our people consists mainly of vegetables, rice, roots and bar-
ley, grown in the valleys and upon the hillsides where irrigation can be
made effective, and of the fish that are drawn from the seas which sur-
round us.

I will not venture too far into statistics, for that might be dangerous ;
but I am convinced you would be startled if I should show the cost of
living in Japan compared with the present cost of living in America. Even
you, with your great store of information, would be astonished if I com-
pared the bulk of our national wealth with the bulk of the national wealth
of the United States. A comparison of figures for 1913 shows that this
great city of Philadelphia — the ninth in point of importance in the world —
has an annual industrial output doubling the total industrial output of the
whole state of Japan. The United States has a population approximating
100,000,000, and Japan has a population approximating 60,000,000. Japan's
•area is considerably smaller than that of the state of Texas. This alone
must open to you a field for consideration of Japan and a ready answer
when you are asked why Japan does not contribute more to the war in
Europe.

It is only ten years since we engaged in what then was a great struggle
for a national existence. The figures representing our national resources
and our national debt today are very large indeed compared with the facts
of our resources and indebtedness then. But to protect our nation and our
people, to preserve that individuality as a nation, which all the Allied nations
are striving for today, call for self-denial on the part of our people and
for a frugality of which most people abroad have even now little concep-
tion. The burden laid upon our people is still being patiently and patri-
otically borne. For the last ten years I can safely say that the self-sacrifice
and the saving of the great mass of people of Japan has been a splendid
tribute to ^ the virtue and value of patriotism, a patriotism so abundantly
exhibited in the Allied countries today. We were prepared then, and are
prepared now, to save and to sacrifice in the matter of foodstuffs as in

40 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

all else, in order to conserve our national forces and unite in preserving
for humanity an individual right to freedom and to liberty.

In the year 1868 the total export and import trade of Japan amounted
to a little more than $13,000,000. In 1877 it amounted to $25,000,000, and
in the year 1913, the last normal year of trade, it amounted to about $600,-
000,000. I am glad to say, and I think it is a significant fact to relate here
to you, that of this total Japan has done more business with the United
States than she has with any other country in the world, a condition which
is emphasized more in these abnormal times than it was during the normal.
Our trade with the United States in the year 1913 amounted to about thirty
per cent of our total foreign trade. I am giving you figures, not as pre-
suming to inform you, but in order that I may emphasize, and you may
consider, the resources of Japan when you estimate the share we should
bear in the future of the food distribution.

Permit -me to offer you again, and perhaps to bore you, with a further
statement which may be illustrative of the resources of our country at a
time when we are called upon to contribute men, money and material to
the winning of this war. In 1877 the total annual state revenue of Japan
was a little under $30,000,000, and in 1913 the total annual state revenue of
Japan was a little under $300,000,000. Not a very large sum in the face
of the thousands of millions you can spare.

Additional figures may again help you to understand to what extent
we are obliged to impose upon our people a frugality which is borne with
a due sense of responsibility by the individual to the state. In the year
immediately preceding the great struggle for our national existence, the
amount of national debt outstanding was a little more than $220,000,000.
In the year immediately following peace, it was a little over one thousand
millions. Today our taxes are very heavy indeed; proportionately, I find,
as heavy as those imposed recently on the people of this country.

I have finished with the figures, and have only injected them to give
you a comparative idea of resources. A like proportion would apply to
the earning capacity of the laboring classes and the margin to spare from
their earnings. I assure you that comparison of the earnings of our people
with the earnings of your people is staggering, until we realize the enor-
mous difference in the cost of living in Japan and of living in the United
States.

Now, gentlemen, you will certainly agree with me that national economy,
which is represented by the frugality of the great mass of the people and
not by lavish expenditure of a few individuals, is as essential to the life of
a nation as is economy to the existence or the credit of a firm or indi-
vidual. Also you will agree with me that the figures representing the busi-
ness of a nation, firm or individual during these abnormal times should not
be taken into consideration or into estimation as the normal resources on
which such states or individuals may base their present estimates for future
years.

The independence of a nation, as the independence of an individual, is-
measured by income, expenditure and indebtedness. Our credit has been
created by a frugality of living and a sacrifice of the individual to the state

PHILADELPHIA'S WELCOME 41

in order that the state, the nation, and the individual may survive. We are
endeavoring to conserve that credit so as to insure our independence. At
the same time we are expending, and we are ready to expend, funds drawn
from a frugal people in a cause which means to us the same as it means
to you — a free, independent life for the nation and for the individual.

At midnight the members of the Imperial Mission and their escorting,
officials boarded their special train for Newport, Rhode Island.

VI
AT COMMODORE PERRY'S GRAVE, NEWPORT, R. I.

Tribute to the American Who Opened Japan Sixty-four Years Ago

The object of the journey to Newport was the placing of a memorial wreath
«on the grave of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, who, with an American
fleet, opened Japan to the world in 1853. The name of Perry is indeed something
to conjure with in the Far East. Notice of the pious wish on the part of Vis-
count Ishii wakened the liveliest pleasure among the Newport villa colony. Ac-
cordingly, when the special train conveying the Imperial Mission party reached
Newport on Sunday morning, the 16th, several hundred persons, including a
highly representative committee, were on hand to welcome them. Of the com-
mittee were J. Henry Reuter, executive secretary to Governor R. Livingston
Beeckman, on behalf of the state of Rhode Island; Mayor Clark Burdick, on
behalf of the city of Newport; the commandant of the Second Naval District,
Captain Henry F. Bryan, U. S. N. ; Pay Director Livingston Hunt, U. S. N. ;
Colonel Joseph H. Willard, U. S. A. ; Commander Rufus Z. Johnston, U. S. N. ;
Lieutenant Commander Herbert E. Kays, U. S. N. ; Colonel Frank P. King, and
Mr. Henry Clews.

After witnessing the bathing at Bailey's Beach the members of the Mission
went to the Rocks, where they were guests for luncheon of Mr. and Mrs. Clews.

The ceremony at Commodore Perry's grave was set for the afternoon.
Thousands flocked to the cemetery in anticipation. The Mission, headed by
Viscount Ishii, entered the cemetery through a lane of apprentice seamen and a
battalion of Naval Reserves standing at "present arms." The gathering place was
in Perry Circle, where the Commodore lies entombed. In addition to the com-
mittee were Mrs. Perry Belmont, Bishop James Henry Darlington, of Harris-
burg, Pa., Miss Perry, of Bristol, R. I., Mr. August Belmont, Mr. August Bel-
mont, Jr., Captain Alexander Perry, U. S. A., and members of the Board of
Aldermen. All present uncovered while the band from the training station
played "Kimigayo," and the "Star Spangled Banner." When the band ceased
;and all were in place, Bishop James De Wolf Perry, of the diocese of Rhode
Island, turning to Viscount Ishii and his party, said:

AT COMMODORE PERRY'S GRAVE, NEWPORT, R. I. 43

We have cherished, among other things, the close ties that have held us
together, bonds of friendship that have often been put to the test, but which
are stronger now because they have been put to the test. You have confirmed
in the hearts of every true American the belief that the principles which you
and America hold in common will result in an alliance that will last for years
to come. In the alliance against the common foe there will be a stronger
bond, and it gives promise of a lasting and glorious peace.

The Bishop closed with a tribute to the Japanese Emperor and to the tradi-
tional hospitality and courtesy of the Japanese nation. As he finished, Viscount
Ishii stepped forward and shook his hand warmly, with a few words of appre-
ciation.

The ceremony of salutation was impressive. Every head was bare and
bowed as Viscount Ishii stepped forward and placed on the tomb of the Com-
modore a large wreath in the Japanese colors, white lilies and red gladioli. Re-
tiring backward a few paces the Viscount halted, paused, made a profound
obeisance to the kami of the departed Commodore, and returned to his place.
One by one each member of the Mission stepped forward silently and made
obeisance before the grave. As the last one paid his tribute, Bishop Perry offered
a brief prayer. Then the entire assembly stood at attention, while the band
once more played the Japanese national anthem and "The Star Spangled
Banner."

The Mission and friends were now driven around Newport, visiting the
Historical Society's rooms, where they were shown Commodore Perry's sword.
A tea and reception at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Alexander Hamilton Rice,
where a large compauy had assembled, was the next feature of the day. A
dinner for some fifty persons was given in the evening in honor of the Mission by-
Mr, and Mrs. Perry Belmont at Belcourt, where the Mission lodged for the night.

At a quarter past ten on Monday morning the Mission and escorts left
Belcourt with Mayor Clark Burdick and a party of prominent citizens, and
proceeded to Fort Adams, where the officers received them most cordially. They
were given a glimpse of one of the heavy batteries at Fort Adams in mimic
action, saw every stage in the construction of the torpedoes at the torpedo station,
and were tendered a drill and review by the brigade of apprentice seamen at the
training station.

Reception and Addresses at the Casino

After the visit to the fort they proceeded to a luncheon at the Clambake
Club, given by the Mayor. After luncheon the party left for the public reception
at the Newport Casino, which was filled by a large gathering of prominent citizens
among whom were Captain Belmont, Henry Clews, Henry A. C. Taylor and
Arthur Curtis James, whose guests the Mission had been during their stay.

44 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

At the reception Viscount Ishii said:

Mr. Mayor and gentlemen of Newport: The opportunity you have af-
forded us thus to visit and to know you will constitute one of the most
pleasant memories of our visit to America. Newport is pictured for us as
the summer home of all the world of intellect and fashion from two conti-
nents. Now we have seen it, we are satisfied that Newport is a summer
home, a winter home — the home of American hospitality. But above all
else, Newport is stored in the mind of every school child in Japan as the
resting place of Commodore Matthew Perry.

Not so long ago but that living men can well remember and tell it to
their grandchildren, Japan lived in isolation, well contented. One day there
came a knocking at our door, and looking forth, we sawr strange sights in-
deed. Fantastic folk, in awesome ships with grewsome guns, held out the
hand of friendship and thus came America and Commodore Perry to our
shores.

Reluctantly we let you in, and in time, with more reluctance still, we
ventured forth ourselves on voyages of exploration to this land of golden
dreams. All this was but sixty years ago. All the world and more par-
ticularly America and Japan in these sixty years have seen vast upheavals
.and vast changes.

These sixty years just passed, must constitute one full chapter in the
history of Japan. During all that time the Pacific Ocean, so illimitable then
to us, has been growing more narrow daily. The East and the West which
stood aloof without a thing in common except their common humanity,
have by that wonderful thread been drawn closer and ever closer together,*
until today we stand shoulder to shoulder as friends and allies, defying the
power or the force of evil to destroy that splendid heritage, which we are
agreed to share as common heirs.

It is a far cry from Newport to Tokio, but because of these sixty years
of learning we have come to recognize each others' voices. We know the
way whichever route we take, and in either home a hearty welcome waits
the coming guest.

I am convinced that with the turning of the page and the opening of
this new chapter of International History, and so, through to the end of all
time and all chapters, our good understanding will increase. The road
between our homes will become more and more the beaten track of neigh-
bors. I am more than ever convinced that we have done with the difficult
pages over which we have labored in the night of doubt and that in the full
light of honest purpose, with the eyes of faith and trust, we shall both, as
nations free, strong and independent, make more frequent pilgrimages to
the shrines we love — you to Tokio where we hope to bid you welcome soon,
and we to Newport, whose beauty and wealth of hospitality exceeds the
most vivid picturings of our imagination.

Mayor Burdick responded to these remarks, and introduced as the next
.speaker Mr. Henry Clews as one whose name is as well known among the ofH-

AT COMMODORE PERRY'S GRAVE, NEWPORT, R. I. 45

cials and leading citizens of Japan as it is in the financial circles of America.
When the applause had subsided, Mr. Clews said in part:

. . . This is certainly an eventful period in history, made so by the
representatives of Japan decorating the grave of him who played so large
a part in bringing Japan into the group of nations, which she had for rea-
sons of her own so long excluded from her domain. Commodore Perry
opened the door which still stands open to friends, and I am glad to say
America and Japan are the best of friends. . . .

It is a grand deed that helps to bring a nation out of comparative ob-
scurity into the front rank of nations, and although the Japanese can trace
events back thousands of years, I believe that today they realize that the
half century that has elapsed since Commodore Perry knocked at their
gates has been the most important half century in their history. I have
always been deeply interested in Japan, and one of the greatest honors of
my life was paid me by the late lamented Prince Ito, who told me on his
last visit to New York on his way to London as special ambassador at
Queen Victoria's Jubilee, that he considered me his "financial teacher," as
it was my privilege to be of service to the first financial delegation from
Japan to this country forty-six years ago, of which committee Prince Ito
was the chairman. I have met since that time almost every diplomat and
man of prominence in Japan who has visited our shores, and with every
year my esteem and admiration for the Japanese have increased.

Then, turning to the members of the Mission, Mr. Clews addressed them
in these words:

Gentlemen of the Commission, as one of a hundred millions in popula-
tion in this country, I vote to you the freedom of every city that shall have
the good fortune to receive a visit from you.

After the address of Mr. Clews, the Mayor and the Mission stood in front
of the stage and the audience filed past and were introduced by name to the
members of the Mission. The entertainment closed by a large dinner given in
honor of the Mission by His Excellency Governor R. Livingston Beeckman at
his residence, and the Mission left for Boston on the 8 o'clock train the following
morning.

VII
HONORED GUESTS OF BOSTON

At the State House

The Mission arrived in Boston on Tuesday, the 18th of September, and was
welcomed by a great crowd in spite of a northeast rainstorm. Troops, lined up
in the South Station, stood at "present arms5' while a band hailed the guests with
the Japanese national anthem as they stepped from the train.

There was an informal parade in automobiles to the State House, where the
party was greeted by Governor McCall. After a brief reception the visitors
went into the hall where the Legislature was sitting to revise the State Con-
stitution.

The Governor, in welcoming the Mission on behalf of the state, referred to
the visit of Commodore Perry to Japan, which opened the doors of the Empire
to the rest of the world. But it was not all gain when the Japanese exchanged
their "serene isolation for a restless and an almost haggard civilization/' he said.
"The western nations have apparently unleashed forces which they can not
control. Those portents of energy called into being by the inventive genius of
man have come to threaten us with mastery, and we are in danger of becoming
their victims and their slaves. Japan will far more than repay any debt she may
owe our western civilization if she shall impart to it something of her old re-
pose, and help subordinate its mighty engines to the use, and not to the destruc-
tion, of man."

Viscount Ishii arose amid great applause to reply to the introduction given
with such oratorical effect. He said:

Mr. President and gentlemen of the convention: I am highly compli-
mented by an invitation to address you in this house, which throughout
your history has rung with eloquence unsurpassed in any tongue; with the
loftiest appeals to the noblest sentiments of mankind from the lips of
patriots whose names are written large on the walls of the corridors of
fame. But it would not become me to occupy your time or interrupt momen-
tous discussions which are of vital importance not only to your country but
to all the world. Let me say, however, that Massachusetts and New En-
gland are very close to Japan. Many of our leading men owe to these
surroundings the impressions and the education which has enabled them to
take their place in the varying walks of life in their home land. Next to the
land of their birth, dear to them above all else on earth, they recall college

HONORED GUESTS OF BOSTON 47

friends and the happy days spent in study and at play at Cambridge. These
always pay a tribute of affection to their alma mater and take increasing
pride in the splendid record she is making in the upbuilding of men and a
nation.

Massachusetts and New England have wielded a vast influence upon
the civilization of our time. In literature, art, science, and industry that
influence has been felt and is being exercised throughout the world. In all
of these there has been no narrow prejudice, for you have gathered from
and sent to the furthest corners of the earth the most representative and
best.

Japan owes much to Massachusetts and to Boston. We have learned
from you at home and your men and women have labored in our midst un-
selfishly and well to our great advantage.

In this connection you will permit me to pay a tribute to the memory
of a great New England gentleman, whose name is well known to you, and
who will by all others from New England or elsewhere be ungrudgingly
conceded a premier place among those who have worked unselfishly and
effectively for the betterment of mankind. I refer to the late Henry Willard
Denison, for over thirty years the guide, the counselor and the friend of
Japan. He was my friend, and I can not let this opportunity go by with-
out saying that I am honored by the memory of that friendship. Not only
this, but he was the friend of Japan; and all Japan, from His Imperial
Majesty, the Emperor, to the least among us, unite in paying tribute at his
resting place on the hills above the capital in Tokio.

He was a great American who typified America in all his life and who
has done more than all the rest of us to weld the bonds that he knew and
I know must bind us. Rugged, strong, brave and independent, Denison lived
and died an American, and lived and died his faith unfaltering in the future of
our relationship.

And now, gentlemen of this convention, in thanking you for your cour-
tesy and your patience, permit me before leaving you to your deliberations
to quote from an address delivered here in Boston sixty-nine years ago,
an address that must deeply impress itself on any reader and on every one
who seeks, as you and I and all of us must, to build our nations to thei
highest point of national achievement and greatness. It was Charles Sumner
who said — he may have been speaking from this historic rostrum:

The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained
and lightened and decorated by the intellect of man. The truest tokens
of this grandeur in a state are the diffusion of the greatest happiness
among the greatest number and the passionless justice which controls
the relations of the state to other states and to all the people committed
to its charge.

Applying this great utterance as a rule for guidance in international
affairs I can say to you that it fills the ideal of the true spirit of Japan in
her dealings with you and with the world. I thank you.

48 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Municipal Dinner

In the evening at the Copley-Plaza Hotel a dinner of five hundred covers
was tendered by Mayor James M. Curley of Boston to Viscount Ishii and the
Mission. The scene was memorable in its lights and decorations as well as in
its brilliant company. The tables were aglitter with uniforms, and enthusiasm
was at high level throughout the proceeding.

His Honor, Mayor Curley, presided and introduced Viscount Ishii as
follows :

It is an exceeding pleasure to welcome to Boston the representatives
of the Yankees of the East and to welcome them in the home of the Yankees
of the West — America; to welcome them in the place where the mighty
movement for equality of opportunity and for liberty received its fruition
and an embodiment which will not be stayed until the rights of man super-
sede the right of kings the entire world over. I welcome you at the most
crucial period in the life of the world, with the realization of the importance
that attaches to your visit to America — with the realization of the new order
that has come into the life of America. America, by instinct, by desire, by-
heredity, is a peace-loving nation ; but, thank God, the day has not yet come
in the life of America when peace rises superior to the desire for national
honor in America. America has been a participant in many wars, but in
every war into which America has entered she has entered with high ideals
and a pure purpose, and she has emerged at the termination of the war with
those ideals unsullied and with her purpose still pure. America in the
present great crisis was desirous of pursuing the path of peace, and for
nearly three years, despite ignominy, despite humiliation, murder, rapine and
savagery, she avoided the responsibilities of a declaration of war until such
time as the national patience was gradually coming to be regarded as national
cowardice. And when the war was declared by the United States it found,
not a divided nation, but a united people — united in the determination that
the war should continue until the policy of Woodrow Wilson had been vin-
dicated. We appreciated the responsibility of America's task. After the
declaration of war Americans opened their coffers and oversubscribed the
Liberty Loan. They gave to the Red Cross fund. They opened their
homes, and by the acceptance of conscription gave joyously to the federal
government a million of their boys to follow the enemy, if necessary, to*
Berlin. In the past Americans and Japanese have regarded each other with
suspicion^ But we have listened to this great representative of the Japanese
nation, Viscount Ishii, in his recent declaration at Washington, to the effect
that Japan is in this war from now until victory rests on the colors of the
Allies, and that ^she will continue in it with the same high resolve and with
only the desire' to work for and serve humanity throughout the world.
And now in the new spirit that permeates America, in the new spirit that
I sincerely trust will permeate Japan, we meet on this occasion with frank-
ness, with simplicity, with brotherly feeling, in a common purpose— the
service of humanity. We have appreciation of the power of this Yankee

HONORED GUESTS OF BOSTON 49

nation of the East, of their valor and sagacity. We have the belief, if they
join in this great task with their whole heart, that when next Christmas Day
comes round there will be peace on earth to men of good will. In that}
spirit of service, in that spirit of sacrifice, in that spirit of high achievement
for a noble ideal, I welcome in our midst the representatives of the Japanese
nation. I ask every man here to rise and drink a toast to the health of the
Emperor of Japan and his able representatives.

A hearty round of cheering was the instant answer of the company to this
toast. As the company resumed its seats, Viscount Ishii arose and said:

Your Honor, the Mayor, and gentlemen: I would be a proud man in-
deed had I the eloquence to fit this occasion or to rise to the heights of the
standard set by those who in speech and courtesy have honored me and the
members of my Mission during our stay amongst you.

The burden of obligation laid upon us for acts of unbounded hospitality
by this great state and by this historic city of Boston is heavier by far than
we can ever hope to repay.

You can form no idea of the pleasure you have given to us or the
depth of the impression you have made.

The story of New England is well known to us. We have learned
your splendid record of the last three hundred years from the pages of our
histories. We have learned to read your poets, to profit by your learning,
and to be stirred by your unmatched achievements in all the arts and
sciences, in the struggle for independence and for liberty — gems set in the
laurel wreaths upon the brow of Fame.

We are bound to you by more than these. We are held to New England
by the ties of memory and honored friendships. At your fountains of
learning our sons have lain close to the breast of a foster-mother alongside
of the first-born and best beloved. At these founts our sons have been nur-
tured. They have returned to us strong and ready for the battle of life;
equipped with the greatest gift with which they could face the future.
Our youths have worked and played with yours ; your men have come to
us and have given freely of their abundance; some of them have been our
fastest friends — New England men, descendants of the splendid crew which
landed upon Plymouth Rock, of the men who fought and won at Bunker
Hill, sacred in the history of human freedom; of the men who lived and
labored with unsurpassed endurance, self-sacrifice and devotion; men who,
in this day and hour, are the models for you as our revered forefathers
must be the models for us.

These we have in common. These memories, these friendships, these
obligations, these examples which can never be ignored; these sympathies,
these forefathers, these mothers and foster-mothers, are today great primal
influences which link East to West and Japan to America. For these and
many other reasons New England, Massachusetts and Boston have played a
large part in bringing about a better understanding. I feel, now that I have
traveled from your western to your eastern shores, that, after all, there
are no points of difference between us which can not be settled as time goes

50 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

by and gives opportunity for discussion between the statesmen of your
country and my own. But these questions do not belong to the more vital
category of the questions of the present. The newer link now added to the
chain calls for our earnest attention. This link is of tremendous importance
to all humanity. It is the link of comradeship in the war which will win
liberty and freedom for us and for you as well as for the whole world, from
the enemy which has crept upon us in the night and menaced civilization.
I say has menaced, for I firmly believe that the last danger of our enslave-
ment passed into the land of impossible things when your great country
threw its weight into the scale. Japan had no choice from the outstart.

We do not enter into treaties to tear them up and scatter them to the
winds. Our treaties are not "scraps of paper." We have tried to play our
part and carry our share of the burden. We have helped to free the Pacific
from the ships and the influence of the nation which has thrown off its thin
covering of decency and now stands revealed in all the horrid nakedness
of the savage.

We are in this war with you to win with you. We are here to cooperate,,
to coordinate, and to contribute. We have not been surprised at what we
have seen during this month of pur sojourn in America. We have realized
that America has come into her own, and we congratulate you, your sons
and daughters upon the magnificent exhibition of national union, national
devotion, and national greatness you are making.

Your Excellency, Your Honor, and gentlemen, we thank you more than
any words of mine can tell for all you have done for us in the past and on
the present occasion. For the future, I see two nations — the one out yonder
under the Rising Sun, the other, this great union under the Stars and Stripes,
their flags entwined, their interests and their objects one, moving together
to a sure and certain victory over all that is evil and mean or petty ; out of
the clouds of suspicion and doubt ; out of the valley of fear ; into the full
enjoyment of the blessings of mutual confidence, mutual respect and per-
manent peace.

I ask this great company to drink to the health of the President of the
United States.

Mayor Curley then made the following presentation speech:

I now ask our distinguished guest, Viscount Ishii, to accept this gold
medal as indicative of the new spirit which inspires Japan and the United
States towards each other, as they both kneel at the new altar in the com-
mon cause of human liberty. The medal is inscribed with the following
words :

Democracy under liberty seeks the freedom of the world.

On the obverse of this medal, in the center, where appears the sun-
burst of Japan, is seen the torch of Liberty, indicative of America's pur-
pose, shining brightly through the sun of Japan. May the intertwining of
the insignia of the two countries as typified on this memorial ever sym-
bolize the purpose, aim and ideal of the United States of America and the
Empire of Japan.

HONORED GUESTS OF BOSTON 51

Viscount Ishii arose and accepted the jewel case with a deep bow, and said:

I am deeply touched by this mark of unbounded hospitality. I shall
keep this precious souvenir as the embodiment of the good will of the
citizens of Boston, now so ably represented by your Mayor, the Honorable
James M. Curley.

Mayor Curley called on United States District Attorney George W. Anderson
-to reply to the toast of "the United States." Mr. Anderson said :

In responding for the United States of America I wish to say that the
struggle for law, order and peace can no longer be a merely national strug-
gle. Whether we like it or not, we are in world politics, and only by and
through them can there be established, as the President has said, the con-
ditions which will make the world safe for democracy. We are in world
politics, and my word is the word of our President when I say that only
by and through world politics can we make safe our own experiment in
democracy. Great nations as well as small peoples will find that democracy
is the only way in which security and peace can at last come upon all the
earth.

Mayor Curley called on Ambassador Sato, resident Japanese Ambassador.

Never before [replied Mr. Sato] have I seen such demonstrations of
patriotism and unity of purpose as I have seen in this country. Wherever
I have gone in the United States I have witnessed the soul stirring and in-
spiring spectacle of men in all ranks of life cheerfully and eagerly respond-
. ing to the call of the nation. In the past few months the bonds of friend-
ship between America and Japan have been strengthened by leaps and
bounds. A new era of mutual confidence and reciprocal trust is dawning.
With this harmony within your country and between our two countries and
among the Allies we are bound to win the war.

Lieutenant Governor Calvin Coolidge, representing Governor McCall, said:

On behalf of the commonwealth I welcome you here as kindred in spirit
to Americans and to American ideals. I extend to Viscount Ishii and the
other members of the Japanese Mission, on behalf of His Excellency, the
Governor, the cordial, deep abiding sentiments and greetings of the com-
monwealth and people of Massachusetts.

Honorable Samuel J. Elder, called upon for a thought, replied :

We are of them and they are of us — two nations with ideals in com-
mon, the ideals of progress and of power. We are not separated. The sea
is no longer a barrier between peoples. It is the highway by which peoples

52 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

come into contact with each other. We are side by side and know each,
other. We are with Japan and the Allies in this war. It is a war for civiliza-
tion, because we are imperiled by militarism, and Japan is imperiled. The
League for Peace is prepared to fight for peace. It is only by war and by
the winning of this war that peace can be obtained. Seventeen nations are
today leagued — your nation and ours — and it is in essence a league to en-
force peace. This league will last beyond this conflict. After peace has
been declared the league will continue to exist among the nations that love
peace. I believe in a permanent league to compel nations to settle their
differences by the arbitrament of law.

Harvard University

A busy day opened for the Imperial Mission on Wednesday, September 19.
A motor trip to Cambridge in the morning first engaged their attention. They
made a tour of inspection of Harvard University and the Radio Training School,
and returned to Boston for luncheon.

Boston City Club Luncheon

This was an important affair at the Poston City Club, to which the Mission
was conducted by Dr. Morton Prince, chairman of the Reception Committee.
A large company was present, mostly the leading business men and merchants
of Boston. Mr. James J. Starrow, the president of the club, acted as toast-
master. A spirited address of welcome was delivered by Mayor James M.
Curley, in the course of which, amid great applause, he presented Viscount Ishii
with a great American flag as a souvenir of his visit to Boston.

In reply Viscount Ishii said:

Mr. President and members of the City Club of Boston: The wealth and
generosity of our welcome to Boston will remain for all time a happy
memory. It is particularly impressive and gracious of you to afford so
much valuable time to the entertainment of this Mission in the midst of
activities unparalleled, and in an hour when your country calls — a call you
are answering with the energy and determination characteristic of America
and Americans.

We are conscious of the fact that this reception you have given to us
is not prompted by the formal obligation of host to guest. We know the
broad and liberal spirit of Boston and New England. We know that we
have been bidden here as the representatives of our nation to receive an
assurance that Boston and New England in this, as in all else, holds out
the hand of friendship to those who come to their shores from far lands
bringing honest assurance of friendship. In this voice of New England,
we recognize the ring of sincerity which can only be found when friend
greets friend.

The venomous gossip that has, for a decade, endeavored to keep our

HONORED GUESTS OF BOSTON 53

nations apart, the differences between us in the past, the misunderstandings
and the misinformation which so easily find credence, have perhaps caused
doubt and suspicion to influence, to some extent, the people of your country
and ours; but now, returning to our home land, we can carry the message
of absolute assurance that the true heart of America has not been reached
by the blight which has menaced us both, and that from now through all
time Japan and America in friendly council together will follow stead-
fastly the path which leads to the fair fields of sweet content, each protected
by, and each protecting, the other from the enemy.

Mr. President and gentlemen, we are together in this great war to win
freedom and to secure liberty, to give and to take according to our needs.
We are comrades and we are partners. Let us see to it that no enemy tongue
or intrigue can at any time throughout the years do anything to divide us.
While this war shall last, let us cooperate and fight together as comrades,
so that afterwards the memory of what we have together achieved may
stand forever to perpetuate our friendship. And so that from the ashes of
destruction may rise a saner and surer and a safer world.

On behalf of myself and the members of my Mission I thank you
sincerely.

Motor Trip over Historic Ground

The managers of the hospitalities of the Boston part of their journeying
resolved that the Imperial Mission should enjoy the spell of delightful autumn
weather to the full, and so they had an afternoon in automobiles through forty
miles of peaceful countryside to the National Army cantonment at Ayer, where
a great military city has sprung up in the wood and pastures.

A troop of regular cavalry clattered over the road ahead of the Japanese
party to the headquarters of Major General Harry F. Hodges. There the com-
mander of the new Seventy-sixth Division led Viscount Ishii, head of the
Mission, and Ambassador Sato to his car and escorted the party on a tour of
the camp. Here was a new American army in the making.

The Mission showed the keenest interest in the great number of completed
structures from barracks to refrigerating plant.

The run to the camp was made part of the way over the route taken by Paul
Revere on his memorable ride, and over the road followed by the retreating
British troops as they fell back before the farmers of Concord, Lexington and
surrounding towns.

At Lexington Green, where the thin line of Minute Men had been drawn
up, the party stopped while Viscount Ishii laid a wreath on the monument,
erected in 1779, to those who fell in America's first battle for freedom. Then,
as during the ceremony of paying tribute at the tomb of Commodore Perry, at
Newport, Viscount Ishii retired a few paces and made the profound Japanese
obeisance in memory of dead heroes. Each member of the Mission followed
with the same salute, while a great crowd of townspeople and tourists stood

54 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

silently by with bared heads. The Japanese visitors were quick to appreciate
and remark upon the singular appropriateness of the first line of the inscription
on the monument — "Sacred to Liberty and the Rights of Mankind."

Continuing over the historic road the party reached Concord and visited
the battle ground by the old North Bridge. Here Viscount Ishii placed a wreath
beside that laid on the monument by the Belgian Commission a few weeks ago.
All the party listened attentively while Samuel J. Elder, who represented the
United States in the arbitration proceedings with Great Britain at The Hague
over the fisheries question, told of the battle of Concord and Lexington.

Tired, but delighted, the party took train at night for Washington.

VIII

GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN THE UNITED STATES

AND JAPAN

Viscount Ishii's Address to the National Press Club at Washington on Ger-
many's Insidious Endeavors to Embroil the United States and Japan

The return to Washington was hastened by an engagement made earlier to-
attend and address a reception of the National Press Club on the evening of
Friday, September 21. The frank quality of the Envoy's talks at many gather-
ings had the effect of crowding the rooms with eager newspaper men. After the
many presentations and greetings, and after the hospitality of that live organiza-
tion had been duly honored, the president of the club called on Viscount Ishii
to address the company, and it may be said that seldom has the attention of
auditors been more intense, and more direct the response of applause to obvious
hits in the course of the address. The Envoy said :

Mr. President and gentlemen of the National Press Club:

An invitation to address the representatives of the newspaper press of
this country is an honor I appreciate very much indeed, as well as the very
great responsibility I accepted with your courteous invitation. But to have
evaded the opportunity would have been to shirk a call to duty.

I will not waste the opportunity or your time and mine with idle words. I
am well aware how narrow is the boundary line between too much and too-
little talk to the keen witted, wise and able journalist who, I believe, always
seeks the truth and sometimes finds it. Indeed, my friends have warned me
that as the choice of two evils lies before me I would be wise to choose the
third and not to talk at all. Let me assure you at the outset that I do not
propose here to be foolish enough to weave a web for your untangling.

I welcome this opportunity to talk to- you as my friends under your own
rooftree. I welcome it because I have never before had a chance to talk to
such a gathering, and I 'welcome it because I believe you can help me if I
help you. I have had the very distinguished honor of meeting the owners
and the representatives of many of your leading newspapers in Europe, in
America and in my own country, and let me say that I not only have the
most profound respect for the noble calling you follow, but many warm and
close friendships among you.

As you will realize, better perhaps than most people, it would not be
proper for me to enter into a discussion here of the diplomatic exchanges,
between myself and the representatives of your government, except to say

.56 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

to you that we are not here as mercenaries to barter or to trade assistance
for concession, or to secure special privileges to the exclusion of others. It
should not be necessary for me to make reply to a suggestion of motive un-
worthy of our nation. Surely it would be unbecoming of me to protest the
honesty of our intentions or to suggest a lack of intelligence on the part of
those with whom I come to confer.

I am, however, justified in saying before this body of men who talk to
the soul and the brains of America that we come as honest, sensible men to
confer with honest, sensible men, and we realize that any invasion or attempt
of the one to take advantage of the other would be idle waste of time. Japan
and America are allies in this war— we are partners. As allies, we will win ;
as partners, we of Japan do not propose to sleep, nor do we propose to
violate the ethics which must control a successful partnership.

As I have said before and since my arrival in this country, there is no
question which cafi not be solved by partners in counsel together. No small
or selfish motive should find a chance to live in the atmosphere around us,
or affect the policy we must pursue in common ; namely, mutual forbearance,
mutual trust, complete national independence, and the greatest good to the
greatest numbers.

Gentlemen, you constitute one of the greatest forces in civilization. The
newspaper is one of modernity's latest and greatest developments. I am not
sure that the common expression which says that the newspaper is the
greatest influence in the world is correct; but certainly you are the only
means we have of arriving at what the world is doing, what the world is
saying, and, generally, what the world is thinking. Your influence must con-
tinue so long as the majority of newspaper editors, correspondents and re-
porters seek always and only for the truth. But today in all countries fraud,
deception, treachery and all the forces of evil are wearing disguises most
difficult to penetrate.

I deeply regret to say that owing to this difficulty the newspapers in
both countries, inadvertently I believe, have delayed the inevitable full under-
standing between America and Japan. I am quite confident that some day
(and I sincerely trust the day is not far distant) the eyes of all men who
honestly endeavor to present the truth will be opened, and that the truth
about Japan and about America will be revealed to all the world. When
that day comes you and all men will know how cleverly the work of de-
ception has been carried on and how long we have listened to lies about the
ambitions and the ideals of the East and the West.

In my addresses delivered here and elsewhere since my arrival in this
country, I have made most pointed allusions to the influences which have
kept our two countries apart. For more than ten years a propaganda has
been carried on in this country, in Japan, and, in fact, throughout the world,
for the one and sole purpose of keeping nations of Far East and Far West as
far apart as possible ; to break up existing treaties and understanding ; to
•create distrust, suspicion and unkindly feeling between neighbors in the
East and in the West, and all in order that Germany might secure advan-
tages in the confusion. I do not think that you, gentlemen, in your busy
lives here during the last ten years, have given more than passing attention
to developments in the Far East. The well equipped agent of your enemy

GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN 57

and mine has taken advantage of your preoccupation or of your kindly credu-
lity. For many years his work was easy. The world was flooded with tales
of Japan's military aspirations and Japan's duplicity. Have these been borne
out by history ? Even now the German publicity agent whispers first in your
ear and then in mine. His story is specious and is told in the dim light
which falls upon sympathetic pictures cleverly painted by himself and pre-
sented to you and to me in the past. To the accompaniment of appeals to
the human heart, he tells to me other stories of your duplicity, and to you of
mine.

For twelve years, gentlemen, up to the present time those agents have
worked among us and elsewhere persistently and cleverly. They have been
supplied with unlimited resources. No wonder we have been deceived. A
short time ago a bad blunder gave us a clue. The Zimmerman note to Mex-
ico involving Japan was a blunder. It made such a noise that we were dis-
turbed in our slumbers, and so were you. This gave a check for a time, but
since then the agents have been hard at work. They were at work yester-
day and they are at work today. Every prejudice, every sympathy, every
available argument has been appealed to and used to show to your people
and to ours what a low, cunning enemy we have each in the other, and how
much dependent we are upon the future friendship, support and good will of
Germany.

Now, gentlemen, you might expect me to say something about the object
of my mission, in reply to suggestions made continually in the newspapers
who get the truth from the "high authorities on the Far East," or "close
friends of the administration." One might inquire from what fountainhead
these intimate informations come. I have not told anyone what I have said
in the pleasant conversations I have had with the officials in Washington/
and I do not believe for a moment that the high officials have told anyone
either. Yet these informants have the whole story and tell you just what
we are after. The myths of "The Closed Door" ; "Oppression and Robbery
in China" ; "Control of the Far East" ; "An Asiatic Monroe Doctrine" ; "Po-
litical and Military Control of all the Resources and Territory of China" —
these are old, old stories. And now we are told that we have come to Wash-
ington when the whole world is at war, when all the world is in need of dis-
interested friendships, when all civilization is menaced, when our fathers
cry to us and yours to you from their resting places to join hands and fight
for name and honor and for flag. In such an hour, at such a time, you are
told that we come here to trade ; that we come as mercenaries, to ask a price
for our assistance in this war.

Gentlemen, is this a charge you want me to answer? Answer it your-
selves, out of your own honest men's hearts.

Let me tell you a little piece of secret history. When it became known
to us that the American and British governments were alike desirous of en-
tering into a general treaty of arbitration, but that they found the making of
such a treaty was precluded by the terms of the British alliance with Japan
as they then stood, it was not with the consent of Japan, but it was because
of Japan's spontaneous offer that the stipulations of the alliance were revised
so that no obstacle might be put in the way of the proposed treaty. As you
know, Article 4 of the new Anglo- Japanese Treaty now in effect, excludes

58 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

the United States from its operation. This is a true account of the genesis
of that clause. It was Japan's own idea, her own contribution to the cause
of universal peace.

Now if Japan had the remotest intention of appealing to arms against
America, how could she thus voluntarily have renounced the all important
cooperation of Great Britain ? It would have been wildly quixotic. Treaties
are not "scraps of paper" to Great Britain. Japan knew she could rely on
Great Britain religiously to carry out her promise. It was my good fortune
to be in the Foreign Office at Tokio at the time of the revision of the Treaty
of Alliance with Great Britain, and, modest as was the part I took therein, I
can give you the personal and emphatic assurance that there was at that time
no one in the government or among the public 6f Japan opposed to the
terms of that revision.

There is, one may surely be safe in saying, only one way to interpret
this attitude of Japan. It is the most signal proof — if, indeed, any proof is
needed — that to the Japanese government and nation anything like armed
conflict with America is simply unthinkable.

Gentlemen, in such a spirit we are here now. In such a spirit I am
convinced that you, gentlemen, have bidden me here as your guest. In such
spirit of cooperation, mutual defense and offense against evil and the menace
of wrong, let us help one another and move onward together to the end in
good understanding and peace.

Progress of the Diplomatic Conversations

Succeeding days in Washington were largely devoted by the Imperial Mis-
sion to its special business. No glint of the nature or scope of the conversations
was given to the public, however. On September 24 the Washington corre-
spondent of the New York Times telegraphed to his paper that Secretary of
State Lansing, in response to inquiries as to the conferences between Viscount
Ishii and himself, said:

The conversations with Viscount Ishii have been of a most satisfactory
character, and I think that his visit to this country has been most helpful in
benefiting the relations between the two countries and in strengthening the
bonds of friendship.

The new American Ambassador to Japan, Mr. Morris, called on Viscount
Ishii in the course of the day. Mr. M. Nagai, of the Japanese Foreign Office,
and Colonel Tanikawa, both attached to the Mission, left on the same evening
for Pittsburgh, where, as representatives of Viscount Ishii, they placed a wreath
on the tomb of the late American Ambassador Guthrie.

On Wednesday, September 26, Viscount Ishii called on President Wilson
at the White House and enjoyed a fairly long \isit. It was the Viscount's first
call since he was formally received on his arrival in the capital, and it was really
his good-by visit to the President. It was exceedingly cordial on both sides.

The Imperial Mission was just then busy with preparations for its trip to
New York.

IX
NEW YORK— I

Mayor Mitchel's Proclamation

New York was determined to set its best foot forward in its reception of
the Imperial Japanese Mission. Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, under date of Sep-
tember 26, issued a proclamation as follows :

The Island Empire, whose seclusion of three centuries was broken by
the bearer of a letter from the President of the United States, sends us today
a return message proclaiming its people as brothers in arms in the common
cause of human freedom. One of the momentous events of the nineteenth
century, the appearance of the fleet commanded by Commodore Perry in
Japanese waters, finds thus its sequel in what will be reckoned not the least
notable incident in the inspiring time in which we live.

This visit of the representatives of our great Pacific neighbor and ally
gives to the citizens of New York the occasion and opportunity to manifest
that open hearted and cordial appreciation they feel of the message that
comes to them from the Far East, and to express in becoming form their
sense of the nobility of spirit and purpose of the government of which our
distinguished guests are the selected representatives.

WHEREFORE, I, John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor of the City of New York,
do hereby direct that the flag of our ally, Japan, be flown upon the public
buildings of the city throughout the visit of its guests, and I call upon the
people of the city to celebrate this occasion for the closer cementing of the
traditional friendship between this nation and Japan by a befitting decora-
tion and illumination of their buildings, displaying therefrom -beside the flag
of the United States the national colors of Japan and the nations with whom
both are allied.

Vigorous were the efforts made to beautify Fifth Avenue and other principal
streets with decorations pleasing and significant to the visitors. From every
lamp post standard the Rising Sun flag of Japan flew beside the Stars and Stripes.
The flags of France, Britain and Italy were grouped, too, on all sides. The effect
of the red and white in the decorations was most inspiring. Transparencies bear-
ing the American and Japanese colors were suspended about the avenue arc lights
to be illuminated after dark. Decorators were at work on the City Hall, making
the open space before it into a Court of Honor. A large and efficient reception
committee under the chairmanship of Judge Elbert H. Gary, busied itself with

60 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

preparations. The Judge's residence, 856 Fifth Avenue, near 67th Street, was
tendered to the visitors during their stay. A full and formidable program was
arranged.

Parade and Reception at the City Hall

Promptly at the, appointed hour, 3.45 p.m., the official barge — in this instance
the trim police boat Patrol — gay with vari-colored bunting, bearing the Imperial
Japanese Mission to New York, touched shore at the Battery, Judge Gary and
Theodore Rousseau, the Mayor's secretary, having previously joined the party
from Washington at Communipaw.

Instantly the great crowd massed around Battery Park raised its salute of
cheers. The band of the Recruit, the navy enlistment vessel in Union Square,
played the Japanese national anthem. The Second Battalion of Naval Reserves,
smart young fellows in their service duck, stood at attention. Two troops of
Squadron A, commanded by Major William Wright, flashed out their sabres.

From the windows of the tall buildings overlooking the plaza Japanese
flags, big and little, broke out and fluttered gayly. Some of these flags were of
hasty manufacture. Girls with a knack for ready invention had pinned red
disks in the center of office towels and were shaking them energetically. As the
Naval Reserve band played the Japanese national anthem the civilians of the
Mission stood with bared heads, the military officers with hands at precise salute.

Escorted by General Irons, General Appleton, Judge Gary and Dock Com-
missioner R. A. C. Smith, the members of the Mission reviewed the battalion
of naval reserves and then entered motor cars for the parade north in Broadway
to the City Hall. At 3.45 p.m. the procession moved, led by a detail of mounted
policemen and by two companies of the Twenty-second Infantry.

For the ten minutes required to reach the City Hall plaza the air rever-
berated with cheers. Ticker tape in long, fluttering streamers snaked from the
upper stories of the tall buildings. One such streamer caught and held upon a
pinnacle of old Trinity. Confetti descended in colorful showers. The side-
walks were solidly jammed.

All Broadway was bright with the national colors of Japan, the crimson
sun upon its field of white, or the man-of-war flag with the crimson sun and
sunrays upon their white field. Wherever one glanced the sun flag swayed in
the breeze alongside the colors of the Western Allies. A particularly beautiful
display was made at the building of the American Express Company, where
four gigantic flags of Great Britain, France, Russia and Japan showed their
silken folds under an immense flag of the United States.

Smiling and bowing his appreciation of the cheering and of the decora-
tions, Viscount Ishii, who led the motor car parade, accompanied by Mayor

NEW YORK 61

Mitchel, Judge Gary and Theodore Rousseau, arose from time to time and kept
a neat footing in the rather jerkily moving car. Occasionally he glimpsed groups
of his countrymen leaning from windows, and to these he waived special
greetings.

In the second car were Aimaro Sato, Japanese Ambassador to the United
States; Breckinridge Long, Alton B. Parker, George T. Wilson, and H. A.
Watkins. In the third car Vice Admiral Takeshita rode with August Belmont,
Marcus M. Marks and Captain W. W. Phelps, U. S. N. In the fourth car was
Major General Sugano of the Imperial Japanese Army, with Brigadier General
Irons, Rear Admiral Usher, Adjutant General Sherrill and E. H. Outerbridge.

The fifth car accommodated Masanao Hanihara, Japanese consul general
at San Francisco; T. Imai, vice consul at Honolulu; Donn Barber, and Lindsay
Russell. In the sixth car were Matsuzo Nagai, secretary of the Japanese Foreign
Office; Henry S. Thompson and Timothy Healy.

The following cars carried Commander M. Ando, Lieutenant Colonel S.
Tanikawa, Samuel W. Fairchild, Franklin Q. Brown, William Fellowes Morgan,
Lieutenant Colonel Mizumachi, A. B. Ruddock of the State Department, Martin
W. Littleton, Commander Viscount Hotta, E. Nuida, Walter W. Price, C. Yada,
consul general at New York; Oswald G. Villard, K. Owaku, secretary to the
Mission; John Russell Kennedy, Hunter Wykes and George Featherstone.

As the motor cars arrived on the west side of the City Hall plaza the
Japanese guests found two troops of Squadron A drawn up at the west curb of
Broadway, their sabres at salute. As the cars turned east into the plaza prepara-
tory to stopping at the steps of the City Hall the commissioners fairly rose to
the picturesque charm and vocal acclaim of the multitude before them.

The plaza was a picture. Outside the official participants and lines of
police, every available inch was packed with shouting humanity. As part of
the tableau were six thousand children from the public schools, mostly down-
town, each waving a yellow chrysanthemum or a little Japanese flag. Opposite
the steps of the portico a pyramid of Boy Scouts towered above the fountain,
while one thousand members of the American Junior Naval and Marine Scouts,
commanded by Major Daniel M. Bedell, in their white uniforms and red dotted
Japanese flags, made a striking picture on the City Hall steps. A solid back-
ground for all this parade of the joy of youth were six companies of the 22d
Infantry from Governor's Island, three companies from the Electrical Naval
School, and two companies from U. S. S. Recruit. It made, all told, a splendid
living picture, and as the Imperial Japanese Mission reached the steps of the
portico they were fain to turn and snatch a smiling glance at the enthusiastic
kaleidoscopic scene. Nine Japanese boys belonging to the Boy Scouts greeted
the envoy at the head of the steps.

62 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

The visitors were escorted to the Aldgrmanic Chamber, where the members
of the Mayor's committee who had not gone to the Battery were assembled to
receive them. They packed the gallery as well as the floor space of the chamber.
Viscount Ishii and Aimaro Sato, the Japanese Ambassador, took places on the
dais, facing the Mayor and citizens of New York.

With a ring of earnestness in his voice Mayor Mitchel spoke the first public
words of welcome to the Mission:

Your Excellency, Viscount Ishii, and gentlemen of the Commission:

In the name of the people of the city of New York I bid you welcome.
To the salutation of the nation spoken at the capital by President Wilson,
to the reception tendered you by each community of our broad land which
you have honored by a visit, New York now adds her cordial greeting. The
• people of New York rejoice in this opportunity to honor you, the distin-
guished commissioners sent us by Japan, and through you to offer the tribute
of our respect and the assurance of our cordial regard to the mighty nation
which you represent. You have traveled across our continent from the far
Pacific coast; you have seen the vast expanses of our country; you have
visited our cities; you have met countless thousands of Americans; every-
where you have experienced the warm friendship of America for Japan;
nowhere is that friendship stronger than here in the city of New York.

Vast in size, complex in her activities, democratic in her institutions,
progressive in her government, ^ert, prosperous, constructive, drawing her
population from every race and country of the earth, intensely loyal to the
ideals of America, patriotic to the core, New York is in herself an epitome
of American life. In the expression of American opinion, New York
speaks with authority and in the tones of six million citizens. The greeting
and the welcome which are yours today come from the hearts of the people
of this mighty city and are spoken through us, their representatives, by six
million Americans, who hail Japan as a trusted friend, whose friendship
has remained unbroken, as a valued ally embarked with us in a common
righteous cause.

Gentlemen of Japan, permit me to present to you the representatives of
the city government, the members of the Board of Estimate, the governing
body of the city, the president and members of the Board of Aldermen, the
city's local legislature, the commissioners of the administrative departments,
these distinguished guests who have come as a mark of their esteem for
you, among whom are the Brigadier General Commanding the Department
of the East, the Rear Admiral Commanding the United States Navy Yard,
and many officers of the army and navy.

Permit me also to present to you this great and representative com-
mittee of citizens which I have appointed to greet you on behalf of all the
people of New York. Here are represented the business, the commerce,
the social life, the labor, and the learning of New York, all the elements
of our population, all the factors of our progress and our life. They are
here to evidence the esteem in which the people of New York hold the
people of Japan, and you, their distinguished representatives.

NEW YORK 63

Gentlemen of the Commission, Japan and the United States today are
allies. Bound together by the ties of a common interest, inspired by a lofty
ideal of international justice, actuated by the same purpose to secure for all
nations, small and great, the opportunity to pursue their destiny and solve
their own domestic problems under the genius of self-imposed institutions
of government, imperial Japan and democratic America are federated in the
brotherhood of allied nations 4to make safe the world not alone for democ-
racy, but for all peace loving peoples, who, recognizing the sanctity of
treaties, the authority of law, the principles of justice and of right, desire to
live in amity with their neighbors, secure against the shocks of brutal force
or the onslaughts of autocratic conquest.

America, sirs, rejoices in the progress and achievements of Japan. She
looks back to the days of Perry, and reminds herself with keen satisfaction
that her own enterprise, her own progress, her own science, crafts and
learning gave no small impetus to the marvelous development of your great
nation. The progress and achievements of Japan have sprung from; the
labor and the genius of the people of Japan, but America, as the friend and
admirer of Japan, prides herself that she contributed something of the in-
spiration that stimulated that effect and that genius to their marvelous ac-
complishment.

Gentlemen of Japan, as allies we hail you; as historic friends we greet
you; as brothers in arms we pledge you our cooperation in our common*
undertaking for the welfare of mankind.

Out of this visit of your distinguished Commission let there grow a
still better understanding between our peoples, a wanner, deeper friendship,
an unshakable, determination that our friendship shall remain forever un-
broken, firm and cordial.

Mayor Mitchel then introduced Judge Gary as the chairman of the Citizens'
Committee appointed to welcome the Mission. Judge Gary said:

The citizens of this great metropolis associate themselves with the sen-
timents of esteem, amity and good wishes entertained generally by the
people of these United States toward the people of Japan.

We extend to the honorable guests on this occasion a hearty and a cor-
dial welcome. We tender a hospitality which is unlimited so far as dispo-
sition and desire control.

We offer assurance that every word of friendship and confidence ut-
tered by these visitors since they have arrived as guests of the nation 5s
appreciated; that every act of kindly regard on their part is prized and, so
far as possible, will be reciprocated.

We salute them as typical representatives of a mighty Empire whose
abiding good will and whose cooperation in every worthy cause of mutual
concern we covet.

Gentlemen of Japan, you appear among us under the most distressing
international conditions. The god of war, for the moment, controls and is
shaping the destinies of nations. The atmosphere of the world is charged
with the currents of animosity, of strife, of destruction, of greed. The

64 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

leading nations are engaged in the bloodiest and most destructive of all
wars. Most of them have been forced into participation; they would have
stood aloof if consistent with honor and with safety.

Both Japan and the United States have every reason to regret the com-
mencement and the continuance of this horror of horrors. They ardently
hope for the early establishment of peace on a basis honorable and lasting.
Neither can obtain comfort from a consideration of the contest except in
the thought that it is in no respect responsible for its precipitation and in
the belief that it may be of substantial assistance in securing a speedy
termination.

Your countrymen and ours are alike in respect to their love of peace,
their abhorrence of war. They would endure much and they would suffer
long before they would enter the arena of military conflict. But those who
are possessed of this character and inclination are the most terrible when
driven to the point of battle in defense of life, property, honor or other1
sacred right. When fully aroused to the necessity of physical combat they
are superlatively stubborn, vigorous and effective.

We insist our ideas are the antitheses of those entertained by the Im-
perial Government of Germany. If we may rely upon the writings of lead-
ing men and the reported performances of the soldiers, apparently approved
by the government, the rulers of the German Empire advocate the doctrine
that any aspiration may properly be realized by the exercise of physical
power — that might makes right. On the contrary, we believe we are not
justified in seeking to acquire anything we desire or need unless the same
is supported by the fundamental principles of right and justice.

Germany proclaims that she is fighting for her life. This is true only
in the sense that a bandit is fighting for his life when suddenly overtaken
in the attempt to appropriate the property and destroy the life of a law
abiding citizen. Late developments furnish evidence that the Imperial Gov-
ernment of Germany for a considerable period preceding the war, was con-
spiring to violate the rights of weak and inoffensive nations. The tyranny
of this enemy of civilization is to be dreaded by the smaller nations; but
we have no fears for we are right and we are strong.

We do not overlook nor minimize the fact that we are confronted by a
long, stubborn, systematized struggle, supported by years of study and
preparation. The enemy is in possession of territory and property and
routes which, if retained, would be more than satisfactory; and with ex-
isting equipment and strength these positions, or a substantial part, may be
for some time successfully defended against a powerful offensive. How-
ever, if each one of the Allies exerts itself to the utmost, patiently but per-
sistently and continuously, the opposing armies will, in due course, be over-
whelmed and conquered.

Of the full part the Japanese are intending to contribute to the present
war they alone are competent to declare. It is certain they will do their
duty in accordance with the traditions of their race ; and it is equally sure
they will fight to the last dollar and to the last available man before they
will submit to the arbitrary and cruel dominance of the Prussians.

As to the United States of America, she is keenly alive to the situa-

NEW YORK 65

tion. She was compelled to take up arms as a matter of principle. Shei
demands the freedom and safety of the high seas ; the right on the part of
all unprovoking people and countries to live in peace, unmolested and un-
afraid; and the firm establishment of a basis for a comprehensive, certain
and speedy settlement of all international disputes in accordance with the
rules of exact justice.

And the United States will measure up to all her obligations in this
international crisis. She is mobilizing all the resources of the country for
war purposes. She can, within three or four years, furnish fifteen million
men, well trained and fully equipped for battle ; and she can, within the!
same time, provide one hundred billion dollars without crippling her finan-
cial strength or interrupting her industrial progress. If necessary, she will
do both. Yes, and more.

We do not boast of this. We have no lives to spare, no money to waste.
We would conserve life and property whenever possible within the limits of
duty and propriety. But we are happy that, at this particular time, we can
be of substantial aid in defense of principles which lie at the foundation of
civilization and moral progress. We are serious and sorrowful ; yet we are
determined and we are not despondent. And we are a. united people, almost
without exception supporting the President in the endeavor to administer
the affairs of government creditably and impartially. ' If there are any
Americans who, in these days of trouble and peril, are not entirely loyal to
our country, or are failing to support the President and his administration,
heart and soul, such recalcitrant individuals are and for all time will be,
throughout the land, the objects of pity and contempt.

The citizens of New York promise that they will abundantly fulfil
their duty to their country and her allies in the pending struggle for the
recognition and permanent adoption of the principles involved.

These are eventful months in the history of Japan and of the United
States. The visit of the eminent men, whom His Majesty the Emperor has
commissioned to speak for his government, is fraught with possibilities no
one can forecast. The Far East and the Far West have come together to
consider their mutual welfare and obligations, to speak frankly and freely,
to listen with attentive ears and receptive minds.

The questions of first importance relate to the war and the methods for
securing the earliest victory for the Allies. A comprehensive consideration
and the ultimate disposition of many other subjects necessarily must be post-
poned to another time and place ; for there are involved many national and
international problems and many interests. Still at present there have been
and will be, naturally, conversations concerning the intimacy which exists
and must continue to exist between the two countries. We are near neigh-
bors and coming nearer by reason of increasing swiftness in the transfer of
thought and person and property. We are separated only by the sea and
that is free and open; and, practically speaking, the distance is growing
shorter. As close companions every instinct prompts us to live and act in
harmony, now and for all time.

We beg the commissioners to accept, without qualification, our expres-
sions of confidence that the United States will, in the right spirit, whenever
it is opportune, frankly discuss and properly adjust any matter of doubt or

66 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

difference concerning the two countries. We will do our full share in
cementing permanently the existing amicable relations between these two
great nations. Our reputation for fair and liberal dealing is established
and we shall not intentionally do, or for long leave undone, anything to for-
feit the good opinion of mankind. We are sensitive to duty and moral obli-
gation. All this is correspondingly true of the Japanese nation. Evidence
of the feeling of genuine friendship of the Japanese for Americans is found
in every one of the many able addresses delivered by Viscount Ishii during
his brief sojourn in America.

Gentlemen, on this occasion we take you by the hand, in token of a
sincere and solemn wish for a perpetual, intimate and uninterrupted fellow-
ship which must result in no disadvantage to either country but of im-
measurable benefit to both and also to others.

But the government of Germany would, if possible, take both the United
States and Japan by the throat and deal with them in accordance with the
methods practiced in other cases; and, so far as the opportunities for in-
trigue and chicanery might permit, would stir up and encourage ill feeling
between them.

However, the relations existing between the two nations must never be
permitted to become less intimate and cordial as the result of the secrestj
machinations of their foes.

When peace is restored it is certain that the, reciprocal interests of the
two countries will grow rapidly in magnitude, and it is of the highest im-
portance that every energy be used by both, in a spirit of comity and intel-
ligent cooperation, to extend legitimate and successful enterprise. Every
nation, after the war is ended, will seek avenues throughout the world for
the development of new and the increase of old business operations, as they
properly may. Whatever course is natural and right should be pursued by
all. From our vast and rapidly increasing resources we shall offer to Japan
multiplying benefits ; and we note with satisfaction the fact that Japan is
rapidly growing in wealth and influence. It is both reasonable and normal
that the United States should draw largely upon Japan for its needs and
that the latter in turn should supply its requirements from the former;
and both countries will have business transactions with the same people of
other countries.

And so, gentlemen of Japan, we hail you as envoys of a friendly nation
whom we respect and admire, not alone because of what it has been and
has done during the many centuries of the past; nor because it now stands
in the front ranks of the greatest and most potential of all the nations ; but
more especially for the reason that it has in numberless ways demonstrated
that it is the friend of the United States and in turn recognizes our friend-
ship.

We realize that in order to be properly appreciated friendship must be
practical. It must be tested by acts or omissions. Professions alone are not
sufficient. It is quite common to read of or to hear expressed sentiments
of friendship between Japan and the United States; and they are welcome
and pleasant. But this 'feeling of amity between the peoples of our countries
has been and in the long future will be demonstrated by decision and
conduct.

NEW YORK 67

The two great countries who, in citizenship, are represented here today
felicitate themselves that they are comrades in arms with other leading gov-
ernments in a combined effort to secure for the people of the world their
right to liberty, justice and happiness.

Side by side, in the onward march of nations, the Allies, determinedly
and triumphantly, are moving forward to victory.

After the stirring speech of Judge Gary, the Mayor arose and said :

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to present to you the
eminent statesman whom Japan has sent to head this Mission, His Excel-
lency Viscount Ishii, Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary on
Special Mission.

Viscount Ishii, who had listened attentively to the eloquent periods of the
Mayor so crisply and feelingly delivered, and to the plain but forcible remarks
of Judge Gary, replied with very evident emotion as soon as the applause had
quieted down. He said:

We are very proud indeed, Your Honor and gentlemen, to receive such
a welcome at the hands of the representatives and people of this great city.
The warmth and generosity of this reception, and at such a time, gives me
the right to go back to my people, half a world away, and tell them that
space is nothing; that the prejudices and the barriers built up and thrown
across the path are myths ; that the road from the heart of the East to the
heart of the West is clear, and that one of the most wonderful miracles of
all the world and of all time has been accomplished within a bare half
century.

Science and invention have swept the word "distance" away as a mat-
ter of little concern. We come to you and you to us in less time than half
a century ago it took to travel from New York to New Orleans. Your
greatness has been the marvel of the earth. The story of this fabulous
Island City of the western hemisphere has been almost impossible of belief.
But, sir, it is not your stupendous enterprise, your lofty and beautiful struc-
tures, or your streets which teem with evidence of skill and the very essence
of vitality that impress me most. All that is physical fades from before
me and I see here the spirit of the greatest city of the western world meet-
ing and giving friends' greeting to the spirit of my beloved land on the open
field of honest purpose. There is perhaps more in this welcome and in this
response than in other greetings so recently exchanged in this historic place
between the representatives of western nations and of your city.

We have passed through the Golden Gate out yonder on your western
shores to find a great American welcome. In half a dozen cities and in
every home our welcome has been the same — hearty, kindly and sincere.
And now we have come through your eastern gateway and we find the hand
clasp is the same, the welcome just as hearty and the pledges for a better
future even more encouraging.

68 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Your great Goddess of Liberty has given us the challenge and has
passed us as friends ; and now the. city of our dreams which has trained
our youngsters into students and scientists, or taught our men the wonders
of finance and trade — the city which today is the very core of the created
worl<J — has paused for a precious hour to welcome us and do us honor.

Sir, we are very proud and deeply conscious of the meaning of this
reception and this welcome. We shall use the freedom you have given us
with care, and we shall hope to hold its rights and privileges always to com-
memorate this day of great rejoicing and of vast importance in the history
of our two nations.

You, sir, and the people of your city have our most sincere congratu-
lations upon your wonderful achievements and our deepest gratitude for this
reception.

Up Fifth Avenue. The Sixty-ninth Regiment

Leaving the City Hall, the procession of automobiles proceeded between un-
broken masses of cheering people to Washington Square, where the Wanamaker
battalion of women, armed for battle, stood at attention. A brief stop was made
while Colonel Ernest presented Viscount Ishii and Ambassador Sato with medals
of the Order of the Bronze Star and flags of the nation and city.

Seldom has Fifth Avenue been so gorgeously arrayed. The possibilities of
the Japanese flag as a decoration had been developed, and the scene amazed
even New Yorkers. A great Japanese flag, with red rays radiating from the
flaming disk in the center, covered one side of the Washington Arch, and the
official flag of Japan hung over the avenue at every cross street. Replacing the
regular street lamp globes were the triangular frames bearing the flags of Japan,
of the United States, and of the city of New York. The mass of Japanese flags
waved by those packing the sidewalks gave the illusion of a field of gracefully
swaying red flowers.

But the center of attraction in the avenue despite all of this wonder of color
was the camp hardened members of New York's own Sixty-ninth Regiment,
now styled the 165th U. S. A. The men were lined up on the east side of the
avenue from Twentieth Street to Thirty-fourth, standing rigid at "present arms,"
as the Mission passed. The members of the Mission were impressed by the
Sixty-ninth and commented to each other and those accompanying them upon the
appearance of the men. As Viscount Ishii stood beside the Mayor in the re-
viewing stand at the Union League Club while the regiment, to a volley of Irish
tunes, marched by, he turned and said: "Fine men, fine men. They are real
soldiers. They can fight/'

The regiment came from Camp Mills for its part in the day's program and
returned to camp at night. And it was their farewell to the city. In a fort-
night they were on their way to France.

NEW YORK 69

From the Union League Club, where Charles Evans Hughes, Lord Aber-
deen, and members of the Mayor's committee were among those on the review-
ing stand, the Mission went to the home of Judge Gary, at Fifth Avenue and
67th Street, their residence while in the city. Before leaving the club Viscount
Ishii told reporters that he had been impressed by the sincerity of the popular
greeting and repeated the praise of the men of the " Sixty-ninth."

After a leisurely parade northward in Fifth Avenue to the home of Judge
Gary, the members of the Mission retired from the public gaze to prepare them-
selves for the dinner which Judge Gary was giving in their honor.

In addition to the members of the Mission and the Mayor's reception com-
mittee, there were also at the dinner Governor Whitman, Mayor Mitchel, Jacob
H. Schiff, George W. Perkins, Admiral Cleaves, Robert Adamson, Lindsay
Russell, Ambassador Sato, George S. Baker, A. P. Hepburn, R. A. C. Smith
and Melville E. Stone.

After the dinner a reception was given for the wives of those who attended
the dinner in the earlier part of the evening.

A musical program was provided. The artists included Mischa Elman and
Mme. Alda.

Sightseeing

The second day of the Imperial Japanese Mission in New York, Friday,
September 28, was full of events. At ten o'clock the party left the Gary resi-
dence for a sightseeing trip, in the course of which they visited the Woolworth
Building. They were piloted by Mr. George T. Wilson, chairman of the execu-
tive committee of the Mayor's reception committee, and other members of the
committee. Whisked up to the tower top they were much impressed by the view
therefrom, though the morning was dull and a drizzling rain was falling. The
jagged sky-line of tall buildings certainly surprised them, but gray mist curtained
in the distances revealed on clear days. For ten minutes they visited the Stock
Exchange, and then dropped in the Bankers Club in the Equitable Building.
It was now time to go to the Chamber of Commerce, where the first formal
function of the day was to take place.

Chamber of Commerce Reception and Luncheon

At half an hour after twelve Viscount Ishii and the Mission were met in the
vestibule of the Chamber of Commerce by a reception committee of its prominent
members, headed by President Outerbridge, and including Alfred E. Marling,
Welding Ring, T. De Witt Cuyler, Eugene Delano, A. Barton Hepburn, Darwin
P. Kingsley, Samuel W. Fairchild, Jacob H. Schiff, Herbert L'. Satterlee, John
Claflin, Isaac N. Seligman, John I. Waterbury, Dallas B. Pratt, Anson W.
Burchard and A. C. Bedford.

70 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

The visiting party were Viscount K. Ishii, Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary; I. Takeshita, Vice Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy;
Major General H. Sugano, Imperial Japanese Army; the Hon. M. Hanihara,
Consul General at San Francisco ; the Hon. M. Nagai, Secretary of the Depart-
ment of Foreign Affairs ; Commander M. Ando, of the Imperial Japanese Navy ;
Lieutenant Colonel S. Tanikawa, of the Imperial Japanese Army; the Hon. T.
Imai, Vice Consul at Honolulu, and K. Owaku, private secretary to Viscount
Ishii.

They were escorted to the platform by members of the reception com-
mittee and the other guests of the chamber, who included Aimaro Sato, Japanese
Ambassador to the United States; Mayor Mitchel, C. Yada, Japanese Consul
General in New York; Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant Secretary of State;
Rear Admiral Nathaniel R. Usher, U. S. N. ; 'Brigadier General James A. Irons,
U. S. A. ; Brigadier General Eli D. Hoyle, U. S. A. ; Captain W. W. Phelps,
U. S. N. ; A. B. Ruddock, Secretary of the Embassy; Lieutenant Colonel
Mizumachi, Military Attache of the Japanese Embassy; Commander Viscount
Hotta, Assistant Naval Attache of the Embassy; E. Nuida, Third Secretary of
the Embassy; Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the mayor's committee for the re-
ception of the Mission; Major General Daniel Appleton, William Fellowes
Morgan, president of the Merchants' Association; Lindsay Russell, president of
the Japan Society; Colonel William A. Simpson, U. S. A.; Lieutenant Com-
mander Wilcox, U. S. N. ; Captain Gerald Stratton, R. A. C. Smith, George T.
Wilson, Franklin Q. Brown, Henry S. Thompson, Arthur Woods, Leon G.
Godley, Hunter Wykes, Donn Barber and William C. Breed.

As the visitors entered smiling, the company, a thousand strong, gave them
a rousing welcome. As soon as they were seated President Outerbridge came
forward and said:

Gentlemen of the Chamber, Your Excellency, and members of the Im-
perial Japanese Mission, Mr. Mayor and guests: This assemblage of men,
representative of the great business, commercial and financial interests of
this city, which is the business and financial capital of the United States, is
gathered here today for the especial purpose of extending the hand of wel-
come and of warm friendship to these our distinguished guests, the repre-
sentatives of our great ally in the Far East, Japan.

We appreciate the courtesy and the honor that that nation has done us
in sending these distinguished gentlemen on this long voyage across the
Pacific and the American continent to confer with our government as to
how we may better cooperate in our efforts to bring to a speedy and suc-
cessful conclusion this great war in which we are now both engaged.

In this stupendous conflict which shakes the world to its foundations;
which has arrested the progress of civilization and threatens to destroy its
past achievements; which divides the whole world into two camps of

NEW YORK 71'

diametrically opposite philosophies and conceptions of national and inter-
national relations and political liberties, we are indeed proud to find that
this ancient nation of the Far East, which accepted the hand of friendship
from the western world, first from us through our great Commodore Perry,
is now arrayed with us and on our side.

Viscount Ishii, we have seen your nation engaged in great wars of its
own. We know that the men of your navy and armies fight with unsur-
passed valor, with unbounded devotion and patriotism to their country and
their Emperor, and always with that chivalry which marks the man of true
courage. We know that they scorn the brutalities that are perpetrated by
those who hold to the belief that might is supreme over right. Then, too,
we have seen the marvelous advances that your nation has made in peaceful
industrial arts. Your initiative, ingenuity and perseverence have challenged
our admiration.

We have seen your nation in scarcely more than half a century, in the
span of one human life as it were, emerge from its ancient exclusiveness in
the Orient and take a position among the progressive and predominant
powers of the western world.

We believe that this visit that you have now paid us will result in a
great deal more than merely a better cooperation in the prosecution of this
war ; we believe that it will cement and perpetuate the friendship which has
really existed from all time ; we believe that it will demonstrate to all those,
whether foes abroad or alien foes within, or disloyal people masquerading
under our own citizenship, who have tried by propaganda of innuendo and
suspicion, to raise up, as it were, a "chilling mist" between us, that their
efforts have completely failed. We believe that your visit and the recep-
tion which you have had will result in the representative people of our two
nations determining upon whatever steps may be necessary to see that this
friendship shall not be disturbed in the future but that it shall continue to
grow and to glow with increasing warmth.

In the great era of reconstruction and commercial expansion which
must follow this war, we realize that in the Far East your nation must
play a most prominent part.

In the great republic of China which lies close to your shores, where,
notwithstanding its ancient civilization, culture, philosophy, religion and art,
nevertheless there remain great masses of its people who are as yet only
children in their knowledge of western industrial art, as you and we have
conceived and developed it, we know that you will certainly be a leading
factor in bringing to them the knowledge and the products of western
civilization. We feel that you and we should be allies in that work as we
are now allies in the prosecution of this war. We believe that you and we
should approach that work in the same mutual confidence and with the same
lofty purposes which we now have in prosecuting this war. We feel that
we should each carry into that great republic the benefits of western indus-
trial products and processes, but that in so doing, their people should benefit
thereby quite as much at least as we ourselves do.

Indeed, Sir, should it not be that in joining your energy, productive^
efficiency and propinquity with our material resources and our capital, that
their people may say of our efforts, and posterity may write down of what

72 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

we have done, what Shakespeare said of the quality of mercy, that, "It
blesseth him that gives and him that takes."

Gentlemen of the Japanese Commission, we believe fully in the sin-
cerity of your purposes. We extend to you the heartiest of welcome, we
offer you the warmest spirit of cooperation and we pledge you sympathy and
support if it is ever needed.

Gentlemen of the Chamber, I have the great honor to present to you^
Viscount Ishii, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Em-
pire and of the Emperor of Japan.

Viscount Ishii arose and said:

Mr. President and gentlemen : To but few men comes such opportunity.
I can only hope that it may be in my power to impress you with some small
sense of my own appreciation and of the obligation under which you have
placed my associates and my countrymen. I would be a proud man indeed
if some power could give to me the gift of speech to make reply in kind to
your gracious and eloquent words, but I am comforted by the thought that
no words coined or strung together could in any language convey even a
small sense of our appreciation.

Before a body of such men, at a time like this, it would be a poor com-
pliment and bad manners to be silent, and yet it seems to me that the value
of silence has gone up since it came my time to speak and perhaps you,
gentlemen, are quite capable of telling me that with the present price of
silver you would prefer to have speech because you would gain so little by-
choosing silence. I am sorry that from my point of view I can not agree
with you.

I am, however, glad of the opportunity to say some things to you on an
occasion which demands and ensures frank speech and sincerity. I am
speaking to the men who represent the whole world of business in a busi-
ness day of such vast intricacies and considerations that we who stand out-
side understand but little of the movement. Least of all, perhaps, do we
who come from a small island some ten thousand miles away whose total
business falls something short of what the records show for this island of
Manhattan. But, gentlemen, every little helps, and little Japan is here to
help. We are here to say that Japan will make herself as unpleasant to the
enemy as her physical make-up will permit or her ingenuity conceive. This
wonderful welcome we have had in New York, your presence and your
words today, make us feel proud. Since our arrival in America we have
not only been impressed but compressed by the gigantic measure of your
resources and your preparations to stop the war by providing the only means
by which it can be stopped — the complete, utter, physical defeat and humilia-
tion of Germany. But I assure you that we are with you as your allies, your
comrades and your partners in the winning of this war which means so
much to all the world.

You will be satisfied that Japan has done, is doing and will do her share
in such manner as to justify her in claiming a place in the company of
honest men.

NEW YORK 73

We have been friends, sir, for some fifty years. We propose to
strengthen that friendship. We have earned a right to it by the true history
of the past and we propose to hold it through all the years that are to come,
for we value it far too highly to risk its loss. In these fifty years of great
development for you and for us we have met in the market place, and, as
time went by, the understanding grew. We have tasted of your gracious
hospitality on other occasions. We have learned from you the ways of the
West and of the Street; but, sir, those were different times and different
inducements. Hitherto we have come to you, as you have come to us, with
something to sell or something to buy; something to give and something to
take. Hitherto it has been the cry that trade and commerce, exchange and
mart would bring us to a better understanding and it has; but today there
is something more, East meets West on common ground. "That Royal
Hawk, the sun, has flown from the Orient's hand and lighted in the West.'*
The same sun glorifies the stars and is blazoned on the snow white field of
"your flag and my flag as they fly today; on your land and my land half a
world away." This is the day of the gathering of the clans of the East and
of the West. The day has dawned in which the yesterday is forgotten ; when
old prejudices, old misunderstandings fade and you greet us as we greet
you — old friends, and new made brothers in the struggle for human liberty,
human freedom and national existence.

The Chamber then adjourned and the guests and members proceeded to the
library where luncheon was served. At the close of the luncheon, President
Outerbridge said:

Members of the Chamber especially, and also our distinguished guests:
I certainly should be derelict in my duty if I brought this function to a con-
clusion without giving you an opportunity to testify that at this moment we
want to look at and stand beside our young Mayor. I am going to ask him

to say just a word on our behalf to our guests.

•

Mayor Mitchel in response said:

Mr. Outerbridge, Your Excellency, gentlemen of the Commission, and
gentlemen! I fear that the members of the Imperial Japanese War Mission
will almost become tired of the repeated welcomes extended to them by me
on behalf of the city, but gentlemen, let me assure you that though they come
often, they are all sincere. The city delights to honor these distinguished
representatives of our great ally in the East, and our friend, Japan.

The people of New York recognize the deep significance of this meet-
ing, a significance that has to do not only with the past friendship that has
existed between the two peoples, the cementing of that friendship and the
promise that it will continue for all time, but the significance of this visit to
our country in the present state of the war means that Japan extends to us,
through it today, the assurance that she is with us as she has been with the
other allies since the beginning of this war, and that she' is prepared to
cooperate with us as we are prepared to cooperate with her, and we have

74 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

to bring this war to a victorious issue. Gentlemen, our great nation is pre-
pared. Every day, the young men go to concentration and to training camps
and every day, or almost every day, ships go out bearing troops across the
Atlantic. There is no doubt of the truth of what Judge Gary said to you in
the City Hall that the American people are prepared to put as many men
into the field as may be necessary to win this war, and that they are ready
to devote as many billions of the national treasure to the winning of this
war as it may require. But beside those things, it is necessary that this
great nation keep here at home as an inspiration to the fighting forces at the
front, a public spirit that will know no division and that will 'know no sedi-
tion or at least will repudiate any utterance which may strike not only at
our nation but at any one of our allies in cooperation with us.

Your great nation is indeed a lesson for the people of the United States
in the wonderful spirit of individual devotion and self-sacrifice to the
national cause that Japan knows among her people. There is perhaps no
nation in the world where the individual is prepared so completely to sacri-
fice himself to the good of the country, to the good of his neighbors as the
individual in your country, Japan. And when small groups here and there
scattered through our people are discussing the effect of this war upon their
community, upon the interests of other countries or places in which they
take, no matter how deep and how honest and heartfelt an interest — when
they are doing this and when they are discussing whether or not they owe
to the United States an unquestioned and unswerving loyalty in this war,
they may well take a lesson and an inspiration from the people of Japan who,
when their country is at war, have nothing to ask but only to serve.

These are indeed days of remarkable happenings and of new things.
We have received, one after another, the great war commissions from the
Allied nations. Now comes this Commission from the Far East.

It seems to me that this year is seeing a parallel drawn between the his-
tory of Japan and the history of the United States. In 1853 Perry bore
the message of friendship to Japan and the isolation of Japan, maintained
for three centuries, was broken, and intercourse began between the East and
the West. '•

This year sees a traditional isolation of the United States broken for
all time. Our relations with the rest of the world from this day forward
must be other than they have been in the past. We can no longer consider
ourselves separate from the interests and from the happenings of the other
nations of the world. We must take our place among them and we must
champion with those on the side of right the same great principles of de-
mocracy and human liberty. There will be no complete isolation for America
in the future. And so, gentlemen, the United States in this year stretches
out her hands across the Atlantic to the East, and across the Pacific, west-
ward, to the Far East, in friendship, in cooperation, cementing bonds that
are not lightly to be broken in the future ; bonds that we know never will be
broken ; and a brotherhood is formed among all the peoples of the earth who
believe in permitting those who live within a country to live at peace, under
institutions of their own choosing, and who believe in establishing safe-
guards for the small nations of the world against the aggression of autocracy
and the brutality of barbarism.

NEW YORK 75

At the Tomb of General Grant

After the luncheon came a trip on the police boat Patrol up the East River
and through the Harlem Ship Canal. Viscount Ishii, Ambassador Sato, Vice
Admiral Takeshita, Major^General Sugano, and others were in the party.

The vessel docked at 129th Street at 5 o'clock and the party motored to
Grant's Tomb. Here the Seventy-first Regiment formed a lane of honor. The
Seventh Regiment band played the Japanese national anthem.

With simple touching ceremonial, Viscount Ishii, his footsteps lighted by
a single torch through the dusk of the evening hour within the monument, laid
a wreath of roses on the coffin of General Grant, followed by courtesies to the
spirit of the dead Commander of the Union by all the other members of the
Mission.

The party then witnessed a review of the Seventy-first Regiment. The
Viscount, Ambassador Sato, Major General Sugano and the others complimented
Colonel Bates upon the splendid showing of his men. Like the old Sixty-ninth
of the day before, this was the Seventy-first's farewell to New York. That
night it was on its way.

Dinner Given by Mayor Mitchel and Executive Committee

This was the truly decorative event of the Mission's visit to New York,
and indeed in that respect fairly surpassed any of its long list of dinners in wel-
come to visiting war missions. It was given by Mayor Mitchel and the execu-
tive committee of the Mayor's reception committee in honor of Viscount Ishii
and his associates at the Ritz-Carlton, and the coup d'ceil won exclamations of
delight from all the guests.

With the devoted assistance of Japanese artists, who labored night and day
to transform the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton, George T. Wilson and Herbert
Swope of the committee and Manager Albert Keller of the Ritz-Carlton pro-
duced a dinner setting of incomparable loveliness. Nipponese painters created
panels, splendid panels, afire with color and alive with movement, for the prin-
cipal adornment of the four walls. They reproduced the familiar motifs of
Japanese art, softened somewhat for western appreciation, and they brushed
upon other spaces the ancient heraldic devices of the samurai. Set between these
gorgeous panels were lovely lanterns of silk and paper, each showing a bright
device pleasing to the initiated eye of the guests. At the east end of the ball-
room was a display of the flags of all the allies against Germany, the Rising
Sun flag draping emblematically behind the colors of Japan's national comrades
— their support, as the Mayor quickly noted, in the eastern world.

All the speakers commented upon the picture thus presented, and Viscount
Ishii, who confined his remarks there to an appreciation of the reception ac-

76 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

corded to him and the Mission, said he "never had seen anything quite so
beautiful."

The table, with one hundred and two covers laid, was arranged in the
form of a hollow square. It was spread with the dusky red bloom of the
celocia. The deep and wide well of space in the square was massed with bril-
liant chrysanthemums — yellow, white, deep red — and over all was a gentle illu-
mination of soft light, an effect shrewdly created by indirect devices and by
silken screens. The general effect of the decorative triumph won instant praise
from the Japanese guests and was alluded to more than once by the speakers
of the evening, Mayor Mitchel, Governor Whitman, United States Senator
Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma, and Viscount Ishii.

The gentlemen of Japan, with their American hosts of the Mayor's execu-
tive committee, arrived at the Ritz-Carlton at 7.30 p.m., and after a few minutes
of conversation and a pledge or two of personal friendship were escorted to the
glowing banquet room. Viscount Ishii was placed between the Mayor and the
Governor, with Vice Admiral Takeshita, Major General Sugano and Aimaro
Sato, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, in other seats of honor
near Senator Owen and prominent members of the executive committee.

In addition to the Japanese party the guests included Robert Adamson,
General Daniel Appleton, August Belmont, Emory R. Buckner, Nicholas Murray
Butler, Edward H. Blashfield, Nicholas F. Brady, Frederic R. Coudert, Judge
Elbert H. Gary, Hugh Frayne, Samuel Gompers, Charles E. Hughes, Hamilton
Holt, Dr. J. Takamine, T. lyenaga, Brigadier General James A. Irons, Alexander
Konta, Otto H. Kahn, Dr. George F. Kunz, Thomas W. Lament, Martin W.
Littleton, George McAneny, Clarence H. Mackay, Henry Morgenthau, William
Fellowes Morgan, Byron Newton, Morgan J. O'Brien, E. H. Outerbridge, Ogden
M. Reid, Elihu Root, Theodore Rousseau, Herbert B. Swope, Don C. Seitz, John
B. Stanchfield, George R. Sheldon, Jacob H. Schiff, Charles M. Schwab, Oscar
S. Straus, George T. Wilson, George W. Wickersham and Police Commissioner
Arthur Woods.

At a few minutes past 9 p.m. Mayor Mitchel opened the informal speech-
making by assuring the Japanese visitors how gladly the people of New York
seized another opportunity to honor them. After he had proposed the healths
of the President and of the Emperor of Japan, which were drunk standing while
the orchestra played the national anthem, he said :

When the Italian Mission was here I told them New York was the
greatest Italian city in the world, having 800,000 of the people of that
nation in its population. We can not speak in such numbers to our present
visitors, as we only have about 1,500 Japanese in our city; but we can as-
. sure them they are among the most respected, law abiding and substantial
of our citizens.

NEW YORK 77

He recalled the visits of General Kuroki and of Admiral Togo, and intro-
duced Governor Whitman with the compliment that "New York State's readi-
ness to help the Union is due in large measure to the work of her Governor in
the past two or three years."

Governor Whitman informed the Mission of the sincerity of the welcome
by the state, and added :

It has taken a great struggle to convince us of just what the friend-
ship of Japan -means to us. Now we are convinced that they have joined
us, not only in hands, but in hearts. We are joined now in a holy cause
and are bound to win. The Commission has come to find a united people,
from coast to coast, from top to bottom, with every soul solidly behind
the President.

We are for America to the last drop. There is nothing small or mean
about that remark. We are for our allies, for England and Russia and
Belgium and all the others, and for France, whose men sing as they live and
smile as they die. Wre are glad that Japan is with us and we are in every
sense with Japan, and we hope that this friendship, made in this time of
shadow, shall live forever in the sunshiny days to come.

We are for America, but in no narrow, petty way. We are for En-
gland, Japan, all the Allies, because they represent now the things that
America stands for. We are against pacifism, anti-conscriptionism, and anti-
militarism, and against any "ism" that tends to divide our people. We are
for the war to the limit and to the finish.

United States Senator Owen of Oklahoma, introduced by Mayor Mitchel
as "One who shone all the more by contrast with certain others," testified to the
admiration that the American people have for the rise of the Japanese nation,
an advance incomparable in history.

It gives us the great opportunity [said Senator Owen] to remove the
seeds of doubt and suspicion which enemies of the United States and Japan
have been so busy sowing in the last decade.

He recalled that no representative of the Allies had made a more profound
impression in speaking before the Senate than Viscount Ishii of Japan, because
the Viscount's words were so truly the sentiments of humanity, liberty, equality
and justice. He was elated that America and Japan stand together to crush
Hohenzollernism.

How deplorable it is fsaid the Senator] that a great people, the Ger-
mans, should have been subjected from the cradle to the education which
taught them that might is right. They have heard it from pulpit and press
and teacher. But it must be stamped out of the world.

78 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

The Senator assured the visitors that Americans hold them equal in every
way to the people of any nation on earth.

The closing talk was made by Viscount Ishii ; just a few words in acknowl-
edgment of the heaped up bouquets of compliments.

Since we left the pier on our arrival we have had constant evidence
of the genuine friendship of America for my country. If there was any
need for proofs of friendship, the people of New York have abundantly
furnished them. I beg to propose the healths of the Governor and the
Mayor.

Japan Society's Reception

The chief function of the evening, however, was the reception and supper
tendered by the Japan Society at the Astor Hotel. For that society indeed the
function was in the nature of a fruition. For years past its thousand members,
American and Japanese, have striven to implant a belief throughout the United
States in the good faith of Japan, and the moral and material advisability of
warm and cordial relations between the two countries in the name of an old
friendship, and later because of the new condition in the governments of the
world imposed by the great world war.

A very large gathering of men in uniform or evening dress, and women in
fashionable attire — many of the ladies indeed in the Japanese costume to which
they were native — was waiting in the large ballroom of the Astor when at some-
thing after nine o'clock the Imperial Japanese Mission, headed by Viscount Ishii,
arrived. A note of cheerfulness dominated, and their reception was as cordial
as any they had met during a day of emotions. It was, in truth, one of the
most brilliant bodies of notables ever assembled in New York City, and in-
cluded state and city officials, generals and admirals of America and Japan,
numerous diplomats and others of equal prominence in the official, political,
literary and social world.

Lindsay Russell, president of the Japan Society, made the address of
welcome :

We salute Viscount Ishii as an old friend of this society. We greet
Mr. Nagai as one of its founders. We welcome Mr. Hanihara as an ardent
supporter, and to Vice Admiral Takeshita, Major General Sugano and the
other members of the Mission, one and all, we extend our heartiest appre-
ciation of the splendid service they are rendering in bringing about a clearer
understanding and better relations between our two countries.

You need no welcome from the Japan Society. So far as its hospitality
is concerned the doctrine of extraterritoriality applies. It is difficult to be-
lieve that you have traveled nearly 8,000 miles to pay us this visit; but that

NEW YORK 79

distance has been immeasurably reduced by the friendliness revealed in all
of your utterances and the frankness with which you have spoken.

It was just prior to the civil war when the first Imperial Mission from
Japan visited the United States. But it has remained for you and the mem-
bers of your distinguished Mission to open the door of America; that is,
the door to the minds and hearts of the American people, as no other
Japanese visitors have done. Thus will your visit be recorded in history.

Your Mission has stimulated the international mind of the American
people. Your keynote, like that of the Mayor of our great city, has been,
"Be right and speak out." The grace and ease with which you have
overcome the barrier of language has lifted the imaginary veil of inscruta-
bility. You have aroused the envy and despair of all who hear you speak.
You have captivated Washington, our political center. You have estab-
lished an intellectual entente with Boston, our center of culture. You have
fraternized with the City of Brotherly Love. Bostonians and Philadel-
phians have a point in common with the Orient in that they firmly believe in
and faithfully practice ancestor worship. And now New York, the embodi-
ment and inspiration of them all, is yours.

It is a happy augury for the success of your Mission in New York
that so many ladies are interested. With or without the ballot the American
woman is becoming a great factor in international relations. American
women consume more than three-fourths of all Japan's exports to the United
States. Sixty per cent of all travelers to Japan for pleasure are women.
It is safe to say that the remaining forty per cent are largely influenced to
go by the ladies. All lectures on Japan and most of the literature on Japan
should appeal primarily to American women to win a wide audience in the
United States. One of Japan's best friends today is the American woman.

"Tell the truth about Japan," has been the slogan of this society. For
ten years we have combated the venomous gossip and vicious slander of
Japan, and, more difficult still, ignorance and indifference on the part of
many writers and speakers. On the other hand, Japan's friends have over-
praised her. In taking a middle course, a service which I can perhaps render,
is to testify that the Japanese have at least sufficient human failings to make
them interesting to associate with.

One thing is essential to mutual friendship between our two peoples.
That essential is understanding. Let Americans acquaint themselves with
the Japanese point of view. They will find that Japan's problems do not
grow out of sordid ambition or mere self-seeking. Japan, like America, is
responsive to the innate demand for the preservation of self and ideals.
This is our common instinct. It unites us as allies against the forces of
ruthless aggression. Let us stand firm in the hour of trial. As leaders of
civilization, each in a great hemisphere, may we soon cooperate in the work
of reconstruction, in the healing of national wounds and in educational and
humanitarian work in the Orient.

Governor Whitman was the first speaker Mr. Russell called upon. He
praised the stand of the Japanese people in the world war and emphasized the
fact that America stood solidly behind President Wilson He said:

80 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

I wish to express my admiration of the stand which the people of
Japan have taken in the great work! crisis. We are glad that the people
of Japan are with us in this struggle. We are with them as we are with
the people across the sea. We are with them because we and they are
fighting for the cause of humanity, the cause of civilization, and the cause
of right.

These representatives of Japan have been welcomed by the President
of the United States and they have learned that today President WTilson is
the ruler of a united people, ready to follow his leadership as they never
have before and to show the world that the President meant what he said.
Because of this we are with him with our lives, our hearts and our fortunes.

Dr. John H. Finley, State Commissioner of Education, said that Japan's flag
typified the rising sun and that America's flag was similar to the stars in the
heavens He suggested that Japan might fly the Stars and Stripes as a re-
minder of the coming night and that America might decorate her houses with
the Japanese flag as a reminder of the morrow.

Dr. Finley exhibited an American flag which was the first ever made by
Japanese hands and which had been presented to Commodore Perry when he
visited Japan and brought its isolation to an end.

When President Russell arose to introduce Viscount Ishii the applause was
tumultuous. Repeatedly bowing, the visitor waited for a Dause in the welcom-
ing, and said:

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, members of the Japan Society of
New York : It affords me the greatest pleasure to meet you here today and to
have this opportunity of addressing you. I bring to you from your branch
organization and the people of Japan a message of greeting, together with the
assurance that we have watched with deep interest growth of this splendid
organization, and the ever increasing good work you are doing in the cause
of good understanding between the peoples of our two countries.

I thank you on behalf of my associates and for myself for your most
gracious words of welcome; your allusi'on to what this Mission has ac-
complished and may- accomplish for the future relations of Japan and
America naturally is most gratifying to me. If we have made new friends,
if we have succeeded in exposing to the American people the main causes
of our mutual misunderstandings in the past, and if, as a result of this visit,
the two peoples become aware of the fact that the distrust, suspicion and
doubt are the result of careful German culture throughout the last ten years,
we will have done much for ourselves and for you.

The strange thing about all. this muddle of misunderstanding in the
past years is that we have discovered a common characteristic in both
peoples. We have both been too confiding, and at the same time too sus-
picious and sensitive. We have harbored the German and we have received
him as a mutual friend. His marvelous self-centered and ordered existence,
his system, his organization and his all pervading self-assertion have ap-

NEW YORK 81

pealed to us, until in a state of hypnotic sleep we have allowed him to bring
us into mutual misunderstanding. The agent of Germany in§ this country
and in ours has had as his own purpose the feeding of our passions, our
prejudices and our distrust on a specially prepared German concoction.
This is not a picture overdrawn. It is true.

The Americans must now understand the Japanese as the Japanese
must now understand the Americans. True, our language differs, our stand-
ards are not quite the same, and our lives are cast on different lines ; but
the human heart all the world over is just the same, provided the great
tenets of honor, right and justice have been instilled into a nation's or a
people's mind through the centuries and the generations of time. The test
of our relations comes in the sacrifices we are ready to make when interest
and profit run counter to honor and right. That test has been applied in
the past, as 'it must be applied in the future, and we of Japan have neither
doubt nor fear but that when the sharpest test is put on this great country's
friendship American honor will stand the heaviest strain.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no differences between us save those
differences which always arise and are easily settled between the best of
friends, being without a thought of suspicion or distrust.

We shudder to look around us now at the menace we have so narrowly
escaped; but in the ordering of this wonderful world in which we live, a
common need in a world holocaust of horror has brought us close together,
drawn by the swords of human sympathy, human love of justice and human
love of liberty, and because of our mutual danger in the past, and because
of our mutual needs in the future there need be no fear of the loosening of
the golden cord that now and forever holds Japan to America.

A Trip to West Point

The members of the Japanese Mission left the home of their host, Elbert H.
Gary, early on Saturday morning, September 29, for a trip to West Point.
Viscount Ishii and his party were ready at the minute set for departure at ten
o'clock on the yacht Alicia, which left from the foot of West 80th Street.

The visitors were accompanied by members of the executive committee of
the Mayor's reception committee, including Judge Elbert H. Gary, Major General
Daniel Appleton, Captain Burley of the Seventh Regiment, Deputy Police Com-
missioner Godley, George T. Wilson and Dock Commissioner R. A. C. Smith.
The Alicia had a cheering convoy in the steamboat Washington Irving, which
the Hudson River Day Line sent to West Point to carrv the crowds that wanted
to see the distinguished visitors.

A bright autumn day put the scenery at its best, and the bright colors of
the changing foliage added the touches of the season. The Japanese, accus-
tomed, as they were, to the views and vistas of Japan, still had eyes to appre-
ciate the Hudson River country.

An incident of the- trip which pleased the Japanese occurred opposite

82 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Ossining, where stone quarrying was in progress. The workmen, hearing of
the approach *of the Alicia, held back their blasting until the yacht was within
sight and hearing. Then, with a great explosion that sent the earth and rock
flying through the air, a big blast was set off as an impromptu salute.

Colonel Tillman, Superintendent of the Academy, Lieutenant Colonel Guy
V. Henry, Commandant at the Point, and Captain D. H. Torrey, Adjutant, met
the yacht at the West Point landing, with the crack negro troopers under com-
mand of Captain J. K. Brown. The visitors went direct to the parade ground
and the review took place.

Viscount Ishii and the members of the Mission stood on the parade ground,
visibly interested and impressed, while in three battalions the 748 cadets marched
by in review. When the last line had passed the Viscount turned impulsively
to Colonel Tillman and exclaimed: "What spirit they have! They march like
men in earnest."

Other members of the Mission echoed their leader's sentiments, and Vis-
count Ishii repeated what he had said, and added to it many times before the
day was over.

The return to New York was by motor along the west shore, through Bear
Mountain Park, and so on down to Dyckman Street Ferry.

X
NEW YORK— II

Municipal Banquet

The return to town from West Point was in ample time to dress for the
dinner given by the Mayor for the City of New York, the event of the evening,
and culmination of the municipal courtesies to the Mission.

The banquet hall at the Waldorf-Astoria never held a larger company of
dinner guests nor presented a more brilliant picture. Over eight hundred sat
down, and they included the flower of New York's intellectual, financial and
commercial leaders. Ladies filled the boxes. The Mayor's reception committee
was present in force wearing the special medals struck in honor of the occa-
sion. The best of feeling prevailed. Mayor Mitchel presided with Viscount
Ishii seated on his right and Ambassador Sato on his left. Charles Evans
Hughes and ex-President William Howard Taft occupied seats on the dais.

When Mayor Mitchel arose to open the oratorical portion of the evening,
the whole company arose as at a preconcerted signal and cheered, waving arms
and napkins, and kept it up for eight minutes, successive waves of applause
being led by Mr. Taft and Mr. Hughes. This display of feeling was a com-
pliment to Mayor Mitchel's brilliant quality of playing the host for New York
during the visit of so many foreign war missions. Several endeavors of Mr.
Mitchel to breathe his thanks were signals for renewed cheering. At length he
succeeded in saying a few heartfelt words, and proceeded:

Sixty-four years ago America sent to secluded, isolated, insular Japan
a message of friendship and good will ; sixty-three years ago Japan, through
Emperor Mutsuhito, and the United States, through Commodore Perry,
concluded a treaty of commerce and of friendship. The first article of that
treaty reads as follows :

There shall be a perfect, permanent and universal peace, and a sin-
cere and cordial amity between the United States of America on the
one part and the Empire of Japan on the other part, and between their
people, respectively, without exception of persons or places.

Such was the beginning of an international friendship, that has stood
the shocks of time, has survived the irritation of local issues and disputes,
has persisted despite all efforts of jingoes on either side of the Pacific to

84 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

create reciprocal misunderstanding and destroy the cordiality of half a
century.

But the import of the message Perry bore Japan in 1853 was not friend-
ship merely. The results of the treaty that he signed were not confined to
trade or commerce. It was the message of western civilization, of western
science, of western progress knocking at the door of the older, more re-
served, more secluded civilization of the East. And the treaty meant an
interchange, not of wares and products only, but of learning, of science
and of culture.

From this contact, out of these exchanges, we of America pride and
congratulate ourselves, came something of the inspiration that has spurred
the native genius and capacity of Japan to the marvelous development from
an insular and isolated people, to a great, first class world power, equaling
in science, in progress and in modern thought any people of the earth.

Out of an unbroken friendship of more than sixty years the people
of New York, speaking as the most representative community of the Union,
offer to the people of Japan, upon their achievements, upon their progress,
upon their eminence in world affairs, their congratulations, their respect,
their admiration.

Today, however, Japan and the United States are more than friends.
They are allies in the mightiest struggle the world has ever known — the
death grapple of democracy with the forces of autocratic conquest. In that
struggle we are federated by the bond of like ideals, by a common purpose,
and by a democracy that lies deeper than forms of government and finds
its essence in a devotion to liberty and justice, to equality, to fair dealing,
to the principles of humanity, and which bows to the dictates of a national
conscience guided by the great principles of right and wrong.

Because we are today brothers in arms, comrades in the field and on
the sea, Japan has sent to us this distinguished Commission of her great
statesmen, to confer on the conduct of the war. We greet them as friends ;
we hail them as allies ; we welcome them as the representatives of a mighty
people ; we esteem it an honor .to entertain His Excellency Viscount Ishii,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, who leads this Mission ;
His Excellency Mr. Aimaro Sato, the Japanese Ambassador to the United
States; Vice Admiral Takeshita, and Commander Ando of the Imperial
Japanese Navy; Major General Sugano and Lieutenant Colonel Tanikawa
of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Ladies and gentlemen, when in 1858 Secretary Seward was taking leave
of the Japanese Commission that visited our country in that year, he said
to the distinguished statesman, who headed that Commission, "I hope your
reception in this country has been such that you will be glad to come again,
and that without much delay." Gentlemen, we repeat that message tonight
to our distinguished guests from Japan. We hope that your reception has
been such that it will lead you to come to us soon again.

We in New York, gentlemen of the Commission, have followed the
activities of Japan in this war; we know the important part that she has
played ; we watched the successful blockade of Kiaochow, and rejoiced with
you in the reduction of that commanding enemy base. We followed the

NEW YORK 85

• ^

operation of your fleets and armies as they successfully destroyed German
power in the South Seas ; we know of your safe conduct of Australian and
New Zealand transports to the theatre of operations on the western front
of Europe; we know that to Japan was committed the task of keeping open
the channel of communication between Europe and the Far East, and how
splendid, how complete, has been her accomplishment; we know that to
Japan is due the credit for sweeping from the Pacific, the Red Sea, the Indian
Ocean, the last vestige of German power, with the consequent release of
the entire power of the European Allied navies for their great task in
Atlantic and European waters. And now we learn that the navy of Japan
is cooperating in Mediterranean waters to control the treacherous sub-
marine. And, finally, we know how the people of Japan have helped sup-
port the Allied loans, and how the factories, the plants, the industry of
Japan, have supplied to Europe, and particularly to Russia, arms and war
munitions.

All this we know, and for all her splendid service to civilization, to
democracy, to America, we, the people of the United States, are grateful
to Japan.

L^et it be said also, ladies and gentlemen of New York, that we offer
our homage and our grateful respect for the unswerving loyalty of Japan,
our ally, to the Allied cause. How complete that loyalty, how firm and true
the attitude of Japan, were demonstrated a few months ago by the publi-
cation of the notorious Zimmerman note. The people of Japan spontane-
ously condemned and spurned the preposterous plot. It was. to be expected
of a nation that has ever put first among the virtues honor and loyalty, fair
dealing and good faith.

Gentlemen, what we have begun we must carry to a victorious con-
clusion. Japan is pledged to make no separate peace; it needs no pledge,
for the honor of Japan is sufficient guarantee. America is likewise pledged
— not by treaty but by the highest principles that govern the acts of men —
by honor, by her ideals, by the dictates of her conscience.

Through the splendid utterances of President Wilson, utterances that
have sounded around the world, utterances that will rank for all time
among the great state papers, the position of America has been made plain.
He has told why America took her stand with the Allies on the side of
humanity and of the right, and why America will not stop until the world
is made safe for democracy, until there is protection for the weak and for
the law abiding, and until a lasting peace, founded upon justice and on
the reparation, is brought to all the peoples of the earth.

We shall go on and we shall win. The progress of mankind can not
be turned back. The world must and shall be made safe for small nations,
for peace loving peoples, for the institution of self-government. Democ-
racy, justice, humanity and law shall not perish from the earth.

It is the task of America and of Japan — every day it becomes more
our task — to contribute all we have of money, munitions, men and effort
to save civilization and the world from the onslaught of ruthless barbarism,
from the attack of an autocratic power that knows no justice, law, humanity
or mercy, nor any dictates save the dictates of self-interest, of cruelty and
passion.

86 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Shall we discharge this high duty that is laid upon us? Gentlemen of
Japan, we pledge you our unyielding effort. We know we may rely on
Nyours.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last of the great war missions from
our allies that will visit us, and what a wonderful procession of distin-
guished men it has been ! From Joffre and Balfour and Viviani, the Prince
of Udine, Ambassador Bakhmeteff, Baron Moncheur, and now Viscount
Ishii and his associates in this Mission. What an inspiration America must
find from the contact of these men who know what this war means and
realize its significance to their countries and to us.

And now the time has come for America to lift up her soul to the
high places of self-sacrifice, and if she must sacrifice the lives of many of
her children upon the altar of democracy and liberty, she will face that
duty with unflinching courage and with a devotion that is single to the
ideals of- America, and to the flag that represents the aspirations of our
country; for, gentlemen, under the providence of God, we can not, and
we shall not, fail!

Ladies and gentlemen, a year ago one of our most distinguished citi-
zens paid a visit to Japan. It was a visit not of business, private or official.
But there he was received with distinguished honors and great courtesy
because he was a representative citizen of the United States. It was fitting
that he should be requested to serve upon this committee to speak to this
Mission when they visited us, on behalf of the unofficial citizenship of New
York, and now I have the pleasure of presenting to you the chairman of
the committee, Judge Gary.

Judge Elbert H. Gary arose and said:

Mr. Mayor, Viscount Ishii, and associates, and gentlemen: I am not
going to make a speech. I have assisted in arranging for something better.
It isn't necessary for me to repeat that the sentiment of the citizens of New
York is favorable to the people of Japan, for Viscount Ishii and his asso-
ciates on the Commission have come into the presence of millions of people,
citizens of New York, during the last few days. The attitude, the words,
the acts and the very expressions of the people have furnished convincing
evidence of the feeling of friendship on the part of all for the Commission
and for the great nation the Commission represents.

Mayor Mitchel, turning toward former President Taft, said:

In 1904 the United States sent to Japan her Secretary of War. He
had the reputation of being a great traveler, so it is not strange that he
visited Japan three times during his tenure of that great office. It was the
beginning of a friendship that as President he fostered and cemented. A
friendship that gave him personal acquaintance with our distinguished guest
of honor, and it is most fortunate that I am privileged to present to you
tonight to greet our guests an ex-President of the United States, the Hon-
orable William Howard Taft.

NEW YORK 87

Address of Former President Taft
Mr. Taft on arising was greeted by a whirlwind of applause. He said:

Mr. Mayor, Viscount Ishii, and ladies and gentlemen: In my early
days in politics — there was not much of that — I remember meeting a gen-
tleman in the Nineteenth Ward in whose candidacy for county commis-
sioner we were interested with reference to other candidacies that were a
little closer to our heart, and we asked him whether we could count on his
name on the ticket we were preparing in those wicked days of conven-
tions in order to give to the city of Cincinnati and the county of Hamilton
such a government as it deserved, and he said that he was sorry that he
could not consent, because the plan of campaign looked to his being a
sprung candidate for county, commissioner. I am a sprung speaker tonight.

I count it a great, good fortune that unexpectedly I was able to be
present tonight to testify by my presence to the profound respect I have for
the people and the Emperor of Japan and for the personal privilege of
greeting and giving a closer welcome to the old friends of mine — and I
think I may call them such — who have been sent here to constitute this
distinguished Mission. But when I met the distinguished chairman of the
executive committee and heard those sweet mellifluous tones in which he said
to me that he was not a speaker and that he had expressed his views fully
and sincerely on the subject of our relations to J^pan, and that he had not
had the practice of repeating the same sentiments night after night before
the same audiences, and he asked me whether I would not help him out,
because he knew I had — that is the reason why you are subjected to this
test of your patience and that is why I am a sprung candidate. There have
been times when I didn't spring very far.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a profound pleasure for me to be present
to testify to the importance — for I know it — the importance of this Com-
mission and the importance of the preservation of the strong bond of
friendship between the United States and Japan that has prevailed since
Commodore Perry and Townsend Harris, the Consul General, brought about
the relations between that Empire and this country. I am quite sure I don't
overstate it when I say that the statesmen of Japan and the people of Japan
have looked upon the United States as their friend and their helper in the
wonderful progress that they have made since that time from the position
they then occupied to the front rank of nations. That bond was valuable
to us and was valuable to them.. It is the duty of every loyal American
to keep it as sacred as possible, and to do nothing to weaken it. I am glad
to have the opportunity to say to these distinguished gentlemen that there
are in this country, perhaps there are in Japan, but we know it better in
this country, there are a great many people who are much more conspicu-
ous and notorious than they are important. We know that it is not wise
to go to one corner of the country, or one state, to find out what the moving
spirit and what the opinion of the American people is. It has fallen to
my lot, and a fortunate lot it is, to have visited Japan five times. There
is, if you will only wait, always an opportunity to get even. It comes to
you. Japan, take it altogether, is the most hospifable country I know of

THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

in the world. They strain your capacity, and fifteen years ago I had a
good deal in that direction. I have exchanged compliments with the dis-
tinguished Viscount and the Admiral, between whom I have had the honor
to sit, and called to their minds that if they think the morning, noon and
night entertainments that they have had between the western states and
Washington, and West Point and New York, seem pretty strong, they
should think of what they subject their guests to in Japan. And as that
was an expression of sincere hospitality and a desire to welcome the repre-
sentatives of the United States, so this is to be regarded by them, in spite
of the physical endurance that it involves, as a real expression of the ear-
nest welcome of the American people and our heartfelt desire to maintain
that long time friendship that has existed between us since Japan became
one of the family of nations and developed that discipline of her people,
and that character as a nation, and that respect for honor and morality,
internationally, that has given her the place she is entitled to hold among
the nations of the world.

In Mr. Roosevelt's administration, with the aid of the State Depart-
ment and Mr. Straus, who is here tonight, what was called a "gentleman's
agreement" was made, and then in my administration the treaty which then
existed had substituted for it another treaty, and into that treaty was incor-
porated that same "gentleman's agreement"; and it is only the truth of
history to say that that agreement by the gentlemen of Japan has been kept
as gentlemen keep agreements. And they are here as one of the Com-
missions of Allies in this great war that confronts us.

We owe much to these Allies. For three years they have been fight-
ing our fight; they have made the sacrifices; they have given up the lives
of their dear ones; they have contributed the billions that have enabled
them to carry on this fight against the serpent of militarism, and now it is
our turn, and now we have the burden.

We have begun right. We have got a conscription law that is so far
ahead of any legislation with which we have begun any other war that we
ought to thank God every night and every morning that we have it on the
statute books.

And so, with reference to the method of selecting officers, we have
organized the intelligent youth of this country; we have organized a merit
system for the training and selection of the best young men of the country
to officer the army, and with those two parts of our systems we can do
anything, and we are going to do it.

You can't rouse a young giant like our country that has been thinking
of peace and the arts of peace, and never dreaming of war, and have the
giant ready for action at once. And what we must do is to ask our allies
on the other side just to hold on and give us an opportunity, and we will be
there within the year to do our part.

This is a serious matter, a sober matter, a sorrowful subject; but even
in the most serious issues there are some beams of humor that force them-
selves into the atmosphere, and one of them was the Zimmerman letter.
I do not know Mr. Zimmerman, and he doesn't know -America or Texas
or Japan. The idea that he suggests, that Mexico should come over here

NEW YORK 89

and gather in Texas and New Mexico and Arizona, and then should go
over and get Japan to come over and help her, would never have struck
anybody but a German of the quality, the logical quality, of that old man
who was out in the gold diggings and met a man who had just come from
New York, and he said, "You came the plains across? No? You came
the Isthmus over? No? Ah, then you came the Straits of Magellan
through? No? Well, then, you must have come the Horn around? No?
Well, then, you haven't arrived."

That thought of Texas being incorporated in Mexico, and Joe Bailey
and Burleson and the rest of them going down and representing them is
something that I dwell on fondly. I can not forget it. And that is not
more humorous than is the suggestion that Japan would unite with Mexico.
Absurd! It was made by a gentleman who labored under the disability
that has followed the Prussian military caste through this war, and that is
bound to be their undoing. It is the abolition from the minds and motives
of men of moral impulse. It is the abolition from the motives of nations
of international morality, and it has led the German nation and those who
have represented that nation to the grossest error in the interpretation of
the meaning of the actions and of the courage and tenacity^of other peoples.

As the distinguished Viscount has said in a speech at another place,
Germany has misled us and has misled Japan. We have now come to
understand her. We have now come to the point where we know what we
have to do. The German people are a great people. They have been in-
doctrinated and poisoned with the spirit of conquest, with the idea that
might must prevail over right. They have thrown international morality
to the winds, and it is a question now whether civilization is to progress
or to retrograde. And on us, on Japan, and on our other gallant allies,
must fall the burden of standing for and carrying on Christian civilization.

Mayor Mitchel said:

Now, ladies and gentlemen, we know the value of conscription, even
at a dinner. Of the services to his nation of our guest of honor, we in
America know something. We know that at the outbreak of this war he
served Japan as Ambassador to France; we know that lately he served as
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and there is a rumor among his friends that
it is not unlikely he is destined to serve her in the still more important post
of Privy Counselor, but I will venture to say that when history records his
most important service and achievement, it will write down what he has
done upon this Mission to forge still another link in the bonds that unite
our two countries in a friendship that no amount of German intrigue, no
amount of local irritation, no amount of jingoism or of misrepresentation
will ever be able to sever or to burst.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor of presenting to you Japan's
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary on Special Mission, Vis-
count Ishii.

90 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

The Open Door

Viscount Ishii's rising was the signal for a splendid demonstration of sin-
cere regard and admiration, which the envoy acknowledged by many bows. He
spoke in ringing tones :

It is with no light appreciation of the great honor you have done us
and the nation I represent, no lack of knowledge of my own shortcomings,
that I rise to acknowledge your courtesy and hospitality throughout our
visit to the city of New York. I can not hope to meet the obligations or
to find words fitting the occasion. I can only hope that as time goes on
other opportunity may come to me and to my countrymen to demonstrate
our appreciation in some small degree. Let me assure you that our door
is open and while we can not offer you opportunity equal to this, the latch
string hangs outside always for the man from New Yorjc and the man from
America.

The door is always open. It has always been open; it always must
remain open, not only to the guest who comes to trot around our little
island for a. round of pleasure, but to the representatives of these vast
commercial interests represented so well in this great gathering of kings
of commerce.

In spite of all the effort to make you believe that Japan, as she grew
stronger, was always trying to close the door, I tell you that there never
has been an hour when our common sense or our sense of our own respon-
sibility failed us. Why close our door in violation of our pledges, or
endeavor to close our neighbor's door, when we are in honor bound to
protect it? The opportunity for you to trade in Japan or in China has
never been an equal opportunity in its literal sense. As you went far afield
and brought us knowledge of the West, taught us how to grow and how to
trade, so we, as we gained wisdom, knowledge and strength, went into other
fields to trade and to learn. We went to China, where the door was always
open to us as to you, and we have always realized that there nature gave
us an advantage. There was no need — there is no need — to close that door
on you because we welcome your fair and honest competition in the markets
everywhere. We are trading there where we have a natural advantage and
where, unless we are very stupid or very inactive, we are bound to succeed,
and we are trading here where your advantage is equally and naturally as
great. I am persuaded that the grumblings and the whisperings about a
door closed in China by the Japanese against America did not come from
the broad and generous heart of the enterprising American in New York
or elsewhere, but as the result of ten years of an enemy's effort to create
prejudice and distrust. Gentlemen, I assure you that a closed door in
China has never been, and never will be, the policy of my government. The
door is open, the field is there. We welcome cooperation and competition,
all tending to the betterment of the equal opportunity.

But this propaganda of ill will has by no means stopped with the per-
sistent cry of a "closed door." Much has been written about Japan's policy
toward China as being one that sought only the aggrandizement of Japan

NEW YORK 91

and the confusion, disruption or oppression of our neighbor. Here, again,
let me reassure you. The policy of Japan with regard to China has always
been the same. We want good government, which means peace, security
and development of opportunity in China. The slightest disturbance in
China immediately reacts upon Japan. Our trade there is large and in-
creasing; it is valuable to us, and China is our friendly neighbor, with vast
and increasing potentialities for trade. Circumstances for which we were
in no sense responsible gave us certain rights on Chinese territory, but at
no time in the past and at no time in the future do we, or will we, seek to
take territory from China or to despoil China of her rights. We wish to
be, and to always continue to be, the sincere friend and helper of our neigh-
bor, for we are more interested than any one else except China in good
government there, only we must at all times for self-protection prevent
other nations from doing what. we have no right to do. Not only will we
not seek to assail the integrity or the sovereignty of China, but we will
eventually be prepared to defend and maintain the same integrity and inde-
pendence of China against any aggressor. For we know that our own land-
marks would be threatened by any outside invasion or interference in China.

For many years our common enemy has been the worst enemy of China,
as Germany is the worst enemy of all that is honest and decent and fair.
Since the outbreak of the war in Europe China has been a hot-bed of Ger-
man intrigue, and in all of this China has perhaps been the greatest suf-
ferer. J can not give you the positive proofs about the German in the
Far East, as you have had them placed before you by the alert authorities
in Washington, but I can give you as my conviction that the German in
China is responsible for most of the unfortunate occurrences and the mali-
cious widespread misinformation scattered throughout the world for the
one purpose of impairing the relations of the countries concerned in China
and securing the downfall of China to Germany's advantage. When Japan
or America appeared to make progress in China we always have had the
sinister rumor of oppression or the false suggestion of a policy directed
against the integrity of that country; boycotts, which have cost you, first
of all, and then us, millions; revolutions, disturbances and civil war, have
prevented a development by which China, first of all, and her honest friends
might profit.

Gentlemen, I ask you in the light of more recent developments to try
out the history of the last few years and find proof for yourselves of how
greatly in this matter, as in much else, we have been misled.

I am endeavoring to secure your cooperation in this work of revision
of a stipulation built upon misconception and fraud. I am asking you to
cast out the devil of suspicion and distrust in order that we who are allies
and partners may rebuild the shattered edifice of mutual confidence, which
means so much as a stronghold for us both. We are neighbors, friends and
allies. The Pacific Ocean is our common highway. It is dotted here and
there with your rightful possessions and ours. These are guarded and the
highway has been swept by our ships of the pirates of the seas, so that our
countries' trade may continue and our intercourse be uninterrupted. We
guard the Pacific Ocean together with our ships, but more than this, and

92 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

better than the ships or the men or the guns, is the assurance of the notes
exchanged between your Secretary of State, Elihu Root, and our Ambassa-
dor, Takahira, in 1908, in which it was mutually agreed and "firmly resolved
to respect the territorial possessions belonging to each other in the region
of the Pacific Ocean."

Gentlemen, Japan is satisfied with this. Are you? If so, there is no
Pacific Ocean question between us. We will cooperate. We will help and
we will hold each of us what is guaranteed under that agreement.

The ideals of America and the ideals of Japan lie very close together.
Indeed the ideals of all nations educated and controlled by the essence of
wisdom and justice, must bear a close connection. Thus we find that we
have now and always had a common ideal and a common purpose in the
life of each nation and of each individual. Besides, this struggle for human
liberty has convinced your country and mine of the complete solidarity of
interest and community of aspiration of our two nations. Today we find
ourselves standing together, squared shoulder to shoulder, ready to sacri-
fice everything save the honor of our own name and our own nation, in
order that our civilizations, built stone by stone, through the centuries, shall
not be shamed; to prove the welding of that civilization over the spurious
and degenerate product of an evil dream.

It is not conceivable that you of America or we of Japan, because of
a false cry of unstable peace, can change the course set by a star. It is
not conceivable that, for some petty gain secured by the sacrifice of prin-
ciple at the price of honor lost, we can be brought to swerve from our
purpose, let fall the standard of right, or break the bonds of friendship.
It is not conceivable that America and Japan, our ideals one, our purpose
fixed, can fail in this great common undertaking.

We must win, so that when the peace shall come the hosts of immortal
dead may rest in honor and the hosts of the living throughout all centuries
to come may place the unbreakable seal of permanent approval upon the
great alliance of today which forever set a whole world free.

A Day with Japanese Compatriots

Sunday brought no sabbath of rest to the Imperial Japanese Mission. Their
American hosts, who had given them no respite on week days, surrendered the
first day of the week to them; but, alas! they had only to look over the tops of
their Sunday papers to see long lines of their own countrymen — the resident
Japanese — awaiting them with invitations without end. It was, in fact, Japanese
politeness, long suffering and patient, coming forward for its reward. They had
stood aside for a whole week, but now, by all the tutelary deities of the kettle,
the oven and the cake cup, Nippon would claim its own. It was Japanese day
with the Mission.

Dr. Jokichi Takamine, President of the Nippon Club and President as well
of the Japanese Association of New York, and Consul General C. Yada took
the lead in arranging for the entertainment of the commissioners. They were

NEW YORK

treated with pure Japanese diet at a luncheon at the Nippon Club in West 93d
Street, and an American dinner in the evening in the North Ballroom of the
Hotel Astor.

The program at the club was exclusively for Japanese. In addition to
the members of the Mission there were present some forty members of the Jap-
anese colony of New York. Ambassador Sato of Washington was also one of
the guests.

Two boys in uniform greeted the Mission at the entrance to the clubhouse.
They were A. H. Ohnishi and John Edward Kelley, son of Dr. Thomas Francis
Kelley, dressed as a West Point cadet. With their usual courtesy, members
of the Mission, including Viscount Ishii, stopped and shook hands with the
little boys.

Consul General Yada, representative of the Japanese government in New
York, was the official host at the club. Luncheon was served in the Green Room
on the second floor. American and Japanese colors were used in decorating the
entire room. In accordance with their respect for the American Sabbath, the
program at the Nippon Club was entirely informal. At 3 o'clock the members
of the Mission left the clubhouse and went to the home of Judge Gary, spending
a few minutes at a short reception. Afterward they motored to the residence
of Hamilton Holt at 716 Riverside Drive, where they were entertained at tea.

From Mr. Holt's home the visitors went to the Music H?U in Carnegie
Hall. There members of the Nippon Club and of the Japanese Association of
New York, to the number of six hundred, gave them a joint reception. Viscount
Ishii and Dr. J. Takamine, president of the two organizations, made short
addresses in Japanese. The hall was decorated in American and Japanese flags
and banked with chrysanthemums and dahlias. The reception was for Jap-
anese only.

Dinner Given by Japanese

The decorations of the North Ballroom of the Hotel Astor for the dinner
in the evening were wholly Japanese. Chrysanthemums of golden hue gave
the dominant tone with the color modulants of dahlias and bronze oak leaves
and judicious use of the white and scarlet of the Japanese flag and the red,
white and blue of Old Glory. Covers were laid for three hundred. Yet with
all the Japanese surroundings and the exclusive Japanese attendance, the inter-
pretations of the speeches, issued as they were delivered, told of the friendship
of the two nations and their unity in the present war.

Speeches were made by Consul General Yada, Viscount Ishii, Ambassador
Sato and others. Dr. Jokichi Takamine was toastmaster. Singing of the
national anthems of the two nations preceded the banquet. Viscount Ishii led

94 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

the three cheers which followed "The Star Spangled Banner." The cheers were
no less loud and hearty than those for Japan's own song.

Since we arrived at Hawaii and at San Francisco, declared Viscount
Ishii to his fellow countrymen and kinsmen, we have been impressed with
the truth and sincerity of the American people. We ought to recognize this
sincerity and return it equally with sincerity and friendship. We ought to
be open and reveal our true hearts, our true feelings, toward this sincere,
friendly land.

Luncheon at the Bankers' Club

On Monday, October 1, Viscount Ishii and other members of the Imperial
Japanese Mission were entertained at a luncheon given by Messrs. Stephen C.
Baker, R. Fulton Cutting and William Fellowes Morgan, in one of the rooms
of the Bankers' Club.

About one hundred members and guests were present. Elbert H. Gary acted
as toastmaster. Seated at the head table were Viscount Ishi? and other members
of the Mission, Ambassador Sato, Rear Admiral Nathaniel R. Usher, A. B.
Ruddock, C. Yada, Judge Gary, Bishop David H. Greer, General Hoyle, Elihu
Root and Percy A. Rockefeller, and the hosts.

Judge Gary, in introducing Mr. Elihu Root, did not believe that much
introduction was necessary. The applause that greeted Mr. Root on rising to
his feet was proof of this. He spoke with great feeling and said:

Your Excellencies and gentlemen : I am under great obligation to the
hosts of this luncheon for giving me the opportunity to join in testifying
to the respect and admiration and warmth of friendship for the gentlemen
who have come so far across the Pacific to extend to us assurances of the
friendship of Japan and for that great and wonderful nation which they
represent.

I find myself, without any aid or suggestion on my part, put down upon
the program to speak to the formal toast "International Friendship." But
neither the time nor the character of such a meeting as this would justify
a long discussion of that rather broad subject. We are in the midst of a
transition which is deeply affecting international friendship. We are pass-
ing out of one condition of international relation into another and widely
different condition. We recall the maxim of Frederick the Great that a
ruler should never be ashamed to make an alliance which was entirely for
his own advantage, and should never hesitate to break it when it ceased
to be for his advantage. And the further maxim that it was the duty of a
ruler, when he found the treaty was no longer beneficial to his people to
break it, for, he said, "Is it not better that a ruler should break his word
than that his people should suffer?" A fine altruistic view of a ruler's duty
which regarded a treaty as being merely a matter between himself and an-
other ruler, so that only his conscience was involved in the breaking of it

NEW YORK 95

and not at all the conscience of his people; so that if he would do that
violence to his own nature wrhich was involved in breaking a treaty for
the benefit of his people it was a noble self-sacrifice. Now that, in a crass
and gross way, illustrates the old condition of international relation. The
relation was between rulers, between sovereigns — not between the people —
and the sovereigns were pursuing their own settled policies — policies con-
tinued from generation to generation, always involving the possibility of
aggrandizement, of increasing power, increasing dominion, and the people
were not interested in the slightest. All the great wars that have convulsed
the world since the peace of Westphalia have been, down to the very, very
recent days, wars in which some ruler was attempting to increase his power
and his dominion and other rulers were attempting to prevent him from
increasing it. Now, however, the business of foreign affairs is passing into
the hands of democracies and the old evil of dynastic policies is disappear-
ing, for democracies are incapable of maintaining or following the kind of
policy which has involved the world in war so many, many times during
the past centuries. A democracy can not in its very nature pursue such a
policy. The mere necessity of discussion, public discussion, in order to
secure the appropriations, the expenditures, of money, and the action of
public representatives, the mere necessity for discussion is destruction of
such policies. But we are running into other difficulties. Democracies have
their dangers, and they have their dangers in foreign affairs, and these
dangers arise from the fact that the great mass of people haven't the time
or the opportunity, or, in most cases, the capacity to study and understand
the intricate and complicated relations which exist necessarily between na-
tions. And being so situated that they can not study the relations, can not
become familiar with the vast mass of facts which they involve, can not
become familiar with the characters and purposes of other nations, they are
peculiarly open to misrepresentation and misunderstanding. The great
danger to international relations with the democracies is misunderstanding
— a misunderstanding of one's own rights; a misunderstanding of one's
own duties, and of the rights and duties of other peoples. Now we are
peculiarly open to that in this country. We have been so isolated from
other nations that we have, in general, but very slender information regard-
ing them, and we are peculiarly open to being misled. It is only a very
few years since the people of the United States really considered the De-
partment of Foreign Relations as a perfectly useless bureau and ambas-
sadors and ministers as of no practical value at all. You would get a very
large degree of assent ten years ago to the proposition that we better
abolish the whole foolish folly, with all its fuss and feathers. Now we
are passing that condition, but we are also finding antidotes for that evil.
This great war is teaching the people of every country, even the dullest
and the most self-centered, that no nation can live unto itself alone. It is
preaching the inter-dependence of mankind; it is teaching the unity of
civilization; it is preaching the singleness of purpose that goes with duty
and love of humanity and the idealism that pervades all noble natures,
whatever the language be and whatever the country be. In fact, more and
more this war grows to be a conflict between — not between nations, not

96 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

between this, that and the other people — but between certain principles of
Christian civilization and the principles of a dark and dreadful past. There
never has been in this country, so far as my observation and reading go,
any more dangerous and persistent misrepresentation regarding the relations,
the purposes, the character of another country with which we have rela-
tions, than in the case of the relations between the United States and Japan.
I haven't the slightest doubt that the misrepresentations and the attempts
to create that feeling among the people who have it all in their hands now,
the attempts to create bad feeling between the United States and Japan,
have been very largely the result of a fixed and settled purpose, and that
purpose — it seems to me it is growing day by day more clear — was the
purpose that formed a part of the_ policy of that great ruling caste of Ger-
many which is attempting to subjugate the world today. It goes back again
to a maxim of the great Frederick, who advised his successors that it was
wise to create jealousies among the nations of Europe in order that they
might not be an aid to each other when an opportunity for a coup came.
That policy has been pursued everywhere in the civilized world. While
Germany has been incapable of estimating the great moral forces that move
mankind, while she has been incapable of forming a judgment as to what
the real temper and spirit of England, of the British Colonies, of the
American Republic, of the French Republic, of the Italian Constitutional
Monarchy were, she has had a chemical affinity for everything that is base
in its nature. She has appealed to all baser feelings and conditions; she
has appealed to cupidity; she has appealed to prejudice and to all the lower
passions of men everywhere in the world; and wherever she could array
evil against good, wherever she could destroy content and neighborliness
and respect for law and the desire for the better things of life, there she
has been working to subjugate. All the baser passions received impetus,
fuel, encouragement from her — all, I have no doubt whatever, to cause
estrangement, if possible, between the United States and Japan.

Now in the first place, I wish to express my own most grateful apprecia-
tion for the fine and noble way in which Viscount Ishii and his Mission, in-
spired and commissioned by the government of Japan, have come to America
to dispel all this cloud of misunderstanding and suspicion and doubt. The
frank and sincere utterances of the Viscount are like rays of sun dispelling
this cloud. There is very great virtue in speaking face to face ; there is
great virtue in letting in the light i there is a good quality in human nature
which makes men like each other and trust each other the more when they
meet each other face to face, and I think it certain that the visit of this
Mission to America begins a new era of understanding and friendship be-
tween these two great countries that look each other in the face across the
Pacific which will revive the days past and those early years in which this
great republic served its part in introducing the new Japan to the nations
of the world. I wish to say one other thing. For many years I was very
familiar with our own Department of Foreign Affairs, and for some years
I was especially concerned in its operation. During that time there were
many difficult, perplexing and doubtful questions to be discussed and settled
between the United States and Japan. During that time the thoughtless or

NEW YORK 97

malicious section of the press was doing its worst. During that time the
demagogue seeking cheap reputation by stirring up the passions of the
people to whom it appealed was doing his worst. There were many inci-
dents out of which quarrels and conflict might have arisen, and I hope you
will all remember what I say: that during all that period there never was
a moment when the government of Japan was not frank, sincere, friendly
and most solicitous not to enlarge but to minimize and do away with all
causes of controversy. No one who has any familiarity at all with life
can be mistaken in a negotiation as to whether the one with whom he is
negotiating is trying to be frank or trying to bring on a quarrel. This is
a fundamental thing that you can not be mistaken about. And there never"
was a more consistent and noble advocacy of peace, of international friend-
ship and of real, good understanding in the diplomacy of this world than
was exhibited by the representatives of Japan, both here and in Japan,
during all these years in their relations to the United States. I wish for
no better, no more frank and friendly intercourse between my country and
any other country than the intercourse by which Japan in those years illus-
trated the best qualities of the new diplomacy between nations as distin-
guished from the old diplomacy as between rulers. And in the most de-
lightful recollection of those years, and most agreeable appreciation for
what you have now done, I beg you, my dear Viscount, when you return
to your home that you will say to the government and to the people of
Japan that "The people of America, who now hold their foreign affairs in
their hands, wish to be forever friends and brethren of the people of
Japan."

The toastmaster introduced Viscount Ishii, who was received with long and
loud applause and said:

Mr. Chairman, Honorable Mr. Root, and gentlemen: It affords me a
peculiar pleasure to meet on this occasion so many distinguished men of
New York Before proceeding to the reading of my speech I can not pass
this opportunity without expressing my most heartfelt thanks and those
of my associates for the high compliment paid in such very friendly terms
by the Honorable Mr. Root. Coming as it does from such a lofty source
we feel that a great honor and great encouragement have been given to
Japan and the Japanese. I assure you that it will give me the greatest
pleasure when, upon my return, I communicate to my fellow countrymen
the noble, just and fair appreciation which I know you all entertain, and
which is expressed by your able ex-Senator and applauded by all the gen-
tlemen present.

The object of this gathering, as I understand it, is to emphasize a
deeper and more far reaching interest in one particular side of cooperation
between our two countries, as indeed among all nations. No more practical
or more effective constructive method has been discovered than that which
begins at the beginning. So it must be with the construction of the fortress
of complete understanding. The children of a nation must be given a
knowledge of the character, the life and the surroundings of other people

98 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

in other lands. We must instil respect, not prejudice, friendship, not
enmity. This is especially true today when we are beginning a new era in
the relationship of nations. A great common cause and a great common
purpose have changed the horizon of all international relations and con-
siderations. Hitherto we have lived each and all of us more or less iso-
lated, generally absorbed in our complete national thought, national under-
takings and national aspirations, though I do not fail to recognize the grea£
value of what has been done throughout the world by the efforts of your
great missionary bodies in the spread of information and the humanities.

International friendship can not be secured without international
knowledge, and international knowledge depends largely upon international
education and cooperation. I am thankful indeed to believe that as between
our two countries the day of doubt and suspicion is over, and that we have
commenced another, from which these depressing clouds have disappeared.
The seeds of truth and knowledge and confidence will be nurtured in an
atmosphere of human sympathy, the plant will grow and increase, so that
from the yield and harvest our two people may draw a great sustaining
and ennobling influence.

Within the period of the last half century and since we opened our
door to the stream of Western influence, you gave to us of your best. It
was more necessary for us to learn the language and understand the cus-
toms of the West than it was for you to engraft these requisites to inter-
course upon your national life, though a somewhat wider knowledge of our
language and a closer insight into our customs and our home lives must
facilitate understanding between the whole people of Japan and the people
of America. It is here that your educational cooperation, coupled with
your humanitarian efforts, have done so much in building up international
friendship. The great educational institutions, founded and maintained in
Japan for the instruction and physical well being of our people, could not
have succeeded so well had it not been that you equipped your teachers
and your doctors with a knowledge of our language, so that they are able
to have a more intimate understanding of the country than would other-
wise be possible.

I assure you that we are appreciative erf this large interest you take
in the development of Japan, and we welcome the vast influence looking to
a greater interest which this meeting portends. As you are well aware, our
interest in these undertakings has not been limited to verbal expression of
sympathy, but within the last few years particularly a substantial material
evidence has been given in the support of an interest, shown in the propo-
sition advanced for the founding of a great international hospital in Tokio.
His Majesty, the Emperor, has himself set the seal of high approval upon
these international undertakings. Our leading educationalists, scientists and
commercial men have shown substantial interest, and it has given us the
greatest pleasure to learn of the splendid support given to St. Luke's Inter-
national Hospital, which we all recognize as an institution of great benefit
to us and which we believe will prove of vast international and scientific
importance.

You will readily understand, gentlemen, from what I have said that

NEW YORK

99

we most heartily and sincerely sympathize with and give our support to any
movement which will aid in the building up of better understanding. I
know of no way by which this can be done better than through an inter-
national cooperation which will tend to enlarge the knowledge of the
younger people of both nations and the spread of that learning which keeps
the development of knowledge and the enlargement of the fields of science.
In all of these we will earnestly cooperate with you in the future. It must
be our aim to secure the best each has to offer, for in these fields of learn-
ing and of research it is wise that East and West should give and take,
learn and teach, until the leaven of understanding has permeated both.

The military and naval officers on the Mission left after the luncheon for
Camp Mills at Garden City, L. I., where they reviewed the troops of the "Rain-
bow Division" in training there.

Oswald Garrison Villard's Dinner

In the evening the Mission was entertained in the ballroom of the St. Regis
Hotel at dinner by Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard of the New York Evening
Post, who had invited some one hundred leading journalists and many others to
meet Viscount Ishii and his associates. Vice Admiral Takeshita was unable to
take part — was indeed laid up in bed with a cold. Among city officials were
Police Commissioner Woods, Dock Commissioner R. A. C. Smith, Comptroller
Prendergast, and Theodore Rousseau, Secretary to the Mayor. Among the
guests from other cities were Cyrus H. K. Curtis, of the Philadelphia Public
Ledger; Noland R. Best, of the Continent, Chicago; John Stewart Bryan, of the
Richmond News-Leader; Richard Hooker, of the Springfield, Mass., Republican;
Clark Howell, of the Atlanta Constitution; Henry M. Pindell, of the Peoria, 111.,
Daily Journal; Charles A. Rook, of the Pittsburgh Dispatch; Truman A. De
Weese, of Buffalo, and David E. Town, of the Chicago Evening Post. Some of
the metropolitan newspaper men were Rollo Ogden, Herbert L. Bridgman, J. I.
C. Clarke, John P. Gavit, Herbert F. Gunnison, Hamilton Holt, Roy W. Howard,
Clark Howell, David Lawrence, James Luby, Henry M. Pindell, Bernard Ridder,
Don C. Seitz, Herbert B. Swope, Henry L. Stoddard and Melville E. Stone.
Among other guests were Brigadier General James A. Irons, Judge E. H. Gary,
Dr. Talcott Williams, George A. Plimpton, Captain William W. Phelps, U. S. N.,
Ambassador Sato, Dr. Jokichi Takamine, Dr. T. lyenaga, R. Ichinomiya and
T. Furuya.

It was a very homelike gathering, despite its distinguished surroundings, the
veterans of the press having that talent for good fellowship which does not
easily suffer eclipse. Mr. Villard, the host, read a carefully prepared speech
which follows:

100 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Viscount Ishii : It is a great privilege to have even a small part in
welcoming Your Excellency and your distinguished associates of this Com-
mission to New York. The official welcome you have just received will
have demonstrated beyond question the earnest friendship of the imperial
city of America. But it seemed as if your, visit should not be allowed to
pass without an opportunity being given to some of the makers of public
opinion through the press of the east of the United States to receive a
message directly from you in this, the most vital and most tragic period in
the history of modern nations. Hence this gathering.

The hour is the more opportune since both nations are allies in the
greatest struggle of any time. Surely no moment could be more propitious
for the forging of new ties, the strengthening of old ones, and the removal
of all causes of misunderstanding or friction than the present, when both
nations have staked their financial and material prosperity, yes, their very
all, upon the effort to safeguard small nations and to convert to democracy
that Germany which is today ruled by as unprincipled and wicked a ring
of militarists, aristocrats, and autocrats, as ever brought a proud and mighty
nation to utter shame and disgrace.

When one recalls what these men have done to all humanity, the crimes
of which they and their dupes have been guilty, what misery and suffering
they have caused in every nation on earth, one trembles to think what fate
will be theirs if there be such a thing as retributive justice. There are
among us Americans open differences of opinion as to the best means of
combating this German menace to civilization, but I beg Your Excellency
to take back to Japan the truth that no single American who understands
and has at heart the love of American institutions, but is entirely and com-
pletely determined that the abominable doctrine of might above right shall
never control this world, and that the ethical standards established as the
rule of conduct among honest and honorable men shall prevail among all the
nations of the earth.

We of the American press have been asked not to comment upon the
negotiations lately in progress in Washington or to speculate as to just what
Your Excellency took under consideration with our Secretary of State. To
this injunction we have loyally given heed. But it is, I am sure, entirely
permissible now to voice the desire that in its every aspect your Mission has
achieved the highest success, and to breathe the ardent hope that the scope
of your activity touched not only upon our relations in war, but upon those
of peace. For I wish Your Excellency to realize that there are among us
American press men many who have no more eagerly cherished desire
than to utilize the existing close alliance to wipe out every cause for friction
and to so strengthen the foundations of friendship between the two nations
as to render them safe, safe beyond the assaults of demagogues in office or
of the press, and safe beyond any sudden gusts of popular passion. With
some of us this desire is second only to the question of a just and lasting
peace as a prelude to the tmilding of a better and a nobler world.

We echo with all earnestness the sentiments so nobly voiced by you at
the great dinner on Saturday evening, for those journalists for whom I
would speak have been for some time laboring — to use your own words —

NEW YORK 101

"to cast out the devil of suspicion and distrust," "to combat misconception
and fraud" in the relations of Japan and the United States, and are already
at the task of rebuilding the "edifice of mutual confidence." To this we
shall devote ourselves the more zealously because of your appeal and the
more effectively because of your assurance that Japan has no designs upon
the territorial integrity of China.

We feel the more deeply about all this because some of our little re-
spected, or our little understanding colleagues, have played the wicked and
deplorable part of striving to sow the seeds of discord. I beg Your Excel-
lency to believe that this no more represents the whole of the honest press
of this land than it does the wishes of the vast bulk of the American people.
The exceptions have, however, impelled the rest of us to do all within our
power to suggest ways and means to render secure the ties that bind. Thus,
we would have an interchange of visits between representatives of every
class of citizens. We would have established within the United States an
entirely free and independent bureau of information so as to make it possi-
ble to contradict at once any such false dispatches as those which on this
side of the Pacific have represented the Japanese fleet as having designs on
Mexico and in Japan have portrayed the United States fleet as having passed
through the Panama Canal in full war panoply bound for Yokohama.

We desire to have created a Japanese-American commission, or a com-
mission from all the countries around the Pacific, to meet on convenient
ground and to study and report upon all the problems growing out of the
contacts of the several peoples concerned; we desire to have our own laws
so amended that there shall be no distinctions between aliens of any nation-
alities and that all of foreign birth who come to live permanently among us
shall acquire citizenship on equal terms. We stand, in other words, for the
historic American square deal to all comers — however often it may have
been honored in the breach in the past. And, above all, some of us desire
complete disarmament when peace comes abroad, that the cost and the men-
ace of great fleets and great armies shall be removed once for all ; in order
that men shall not rise, as they have risen in the past in Congress, to declare
that our navy is built to combat Japan's, or in the Japanese Parliament to
try to bring about the fall of a Ministry because the Japanese navy is not
as great as that of the United States. We wish, I repeat, to remove every
cause for suspicion and distrust ; every basis for the belief that one nation
is threatening the other.

This disarmament, some people are now saying, is an idealistic dream.
But, sir, it is the idealists who are going to control this world when the war
is over, those who are dreaming dreams of the brotherhood of man, seeing
visions of social regeneration, of an equality among men and women such
as has never before been attempted on earth. Visionaries and dangerous
theorists, some of our practical politicians are calling them, and he would
be bold indeed who would declare all their plans to be practical or wise or
to assert that any clear cut or approximately complete chart of the new
world in which we shall live has been drawn. We must grope our way into
it, trying this route, essaying that highway, tapping at each portal, trying
each gateway into the novel and the unattempted.

102 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

We shall stumble, we may be swayed by fears and passions, but for-
ward into the new domain we shall go. That is as clear as the snow top
of Fujiyama on a cloudless day. When almost every nation reports amaz-
ing Socialist gains, when Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and even Australia
have been on the brink of revolution, and the London Times is alarmed at
the amazing spread of social revolution in England, it is no wonder that the
world is asking itself: Whither is this all leading to? No man is wise
enough to say; few can look beyond the morrow. We can only see that
the world is in the grip of terrific forces, of huge spiritual and economic
geru, as unwittingly unchained as those in the Arabian Nights, and that,
for better or for worse, modern institutions are being recast in the mold.
The reassuring thing is that power is going out of the hands of the few into
those of the many; that the drift is utterly away from the European im-
perialism of the past and its diplomacy. To conquer small nationalities or
to take slices out of any thinly populated countries will be difficult indeed
for any European nation hereafter.

That will mean a vast gain for peace and good will among nations, just
as the war has shown the absence of personal antagonisms among the indi-
vidual soldiers. All of wKich, Your Excellency, bears directly upon the
future relations of differentiated races. They are bound to improve, for
among the great inarticulate masses there surely exists no other feeling save
one of good will to the workers of other climes and the desire to live and
* let live, each in his own pursuit of happiness. Our American masses will,
I am sure, approve of any step, at any cost, to bring about better relations
between our nations, which goes below the surface and seeks the basis for
permanent friendship not only in matters economic and political, but in what
may be inadequately described as the cultural philosophy of the two nations,
their deep underlying beliefs and aspirations. I am sure that all my hearers
have been struck as I have been by the devotion of American or English
missionaries or residents abroad to the peoples among whom they have lived
for a considerable period of time. Thus, they love the Turks, despite all
the crimes committed in their name, and those who really and thoroughly
know Chinese, Egyptians, and Japanese, and others whose difficult languages
are a bar to easy intercourse, love them, honor them, and cherish the desire
to see them rise steadily to power and self-knowledge and true freedom.
The task for us of the press who are dedicated to friendly relations the
world over is to bring home to our people the meaning of this, which is the
essential oneness of humanity whenever we take the time really to know
others as we know ourselves.

To this idealism for the future there is coming, I believe, a great army
of reinforcement as soon as the war is over. I mean the survivors of the
trenches, the hale and hearty as well as the blinded and mutilated. There
is every indication that they will return determined that new ways be found
of organizing the world and of settling its differences of opinions and aspira-
tions. It is not possible to believe that after the sacrifices they have made
they will be on the side of race prejudice or of hate, of suspicion, of dis-
trust, nor of the spirit of murder as we have seen it organized by the Ger-
man General Staff.

NEW YORK 103

Whether this opinion be right or wrong, Your Excellency, I beg cf
you to return to Japan in the belief and with the hope that the outcome of
this whole world struggle is certain to make for human fellowship. And
will you not also say to your countrymen in your own eastern land, the
land of extraordinary ability and power, of the proud spirit that prefers to
perish rather than to suffer dishonor, the land of exquisite art and rarest
beauty, that there are some in America who have no higher wish than that
it shall be said of them: They were of the belief in the brotherhood of
man and therefore they were at all times friends and lovers of Japan.

On concluding his remarks, Mr. Villard introduced Viscount Ishii. His
reply was punctuated at intervals with a generous measure of applause, which
reached its climax when he explained once more the policy of Japan with regard
to China. He said:

Mr. Villard and gentlemen: Only such a host as you among a multi-
tude of hosts and a wealth of hospitality could have realized the particular
pleasure it would afford me to be your guest tonight at a gathering of this
character. You are giving me an opportunity to express my sense of deep
appreciation of the part played by the newspapers of New York and of
America in this wonderful reception to me and my associates of this Mis-
sion. It would be unwise for me to waste your time, and particularly un-
wise to talk too much, especially in this distinguished presence. I am not
going to bore you with repetition of what I have already said in public
speech in many places. I have endeavored to speak frankly and plainly at
all times, and while I regret shortcomings of language and expression, I
have done my utmost to convey the truth and nothing but the truth to the
people of America. I am indeed deeply grateful to the press of this country
for the splendid and wholehearted support and consistent courtesy extended
to us. Gentlemen, the spirit is willing, but my tongue is weak.

I can not to the full extent tell you of my appreciation, because your lan-
guage fails me, and certainly my language would fail to satisfy you if I
attempted to use it here. I have endeavored since landing in America some
seven weeks ago to avoid the use of idle words or the putting forward of
ideas capable of a double meaning or which could be misconstrued. In this
connection, let me ask a favor at your hands. There is one explanation I
would like to make here before you, and request you to transmit to the
people of this country. In a speech delivered on Saturday- night I made
particular reference to the policy of Japan with regard to China. This ref-
erence took the form of a repetition of the pledge and promise that Japan
would not violate the political independence or territorial integrity of China ;
would at all times regard the high principle of the open door and equal
opportunity. Now I find that this utterance of mine is taken as the enun-
ciation of a "Monroe Doctrine in Asia/'* I want to make it very clear to
you that the application of the term "Monroe Doctrine" to this policy and
principle, voluntarily outlined and pledged by me, is inaccurate.

There is this fundamental difference between the "Monroe Doctrine"

104 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

of the United States as to Central and South America and the enunciation
of Japan's attitude toward China. In the first there is on the part of the
United States no engagement or promise, while in the other Japan volun-
tarily announces that Japan will herself engage not to violate the political
or territorial integrity of her neighbor, and to observe the principle of the
open door and equal opportunity, asking at the same time other nations to
respect these principles.

Therefore, gentlemen, you will mark the wide difference and agree with
me, I am sure, that the use of the term is somewhat loose and misleading.
I ask you to note this with no suggestion that I can or any one else does
question the policy or attitude of your country, which we well know will
always deal fairly and honorably with other nations.

As you must have noticed, I have persistently struck one note every
time I have spoken. It has been the note of warning against German in-
trigue in America and in Japan — intrigue which has extended over a period
of more than ten years. I am not going to weary you with a repetition of
this squalid story of plots, conceived and fostered by the agents of Germany,
but I solemnly repeat the warning here in this most distinguished gathering,
so thoroughly representative of the highest ideals of American journalism.

In my speeches at various places I have endeavored to speak frankly
on all points at issue or of interest at this time. There are, of course, some
things which can not be openly discussed, because of a wise embargo upon
unwise disclosures, but I am confident that from this time forward we will
be able to effectively cooperate in all matters tending to secure a victory
in this struggle which means so much for all of us, and that throughout all
the years to come, differences of opinion or difficulties arising between our
two countries will be settled, as all such questions and difficulties can be
settled, between close friends and partners.

I thank you, sir, for your hospitality and for your courtesy. I assure
you, gentlemen, again that we appreciate more than I can express the high
consideration, the patriotism, and the broad and friendly spirit with which
you have treated this Mission from Japan.

Comptroller William A. Prendergast was next called upon. He said in
part:

Mr. Chairman, Viscount Ishii, gentlemen of the Commission, Your
Excellency, and gentlemen: Our host has asked me to say -a word of wel-
come to Viscount Ishii and associate members of the Commission in the
name of the great city of New York.

It would seem to me that it is hardly necessary even to attempt to
repeat the very great pleasure and honor and happiness that it gives New
York to have you as its guests.

Now, Viscount Ishii, might I at this time sound a note which may be
somewhat contrary to that which has been the dominant idea of our dis-
cussions upon these occasions? We have treated, and naturally, of war.
That is the thought that is uppermost in our minds. It is the thing that is
in the thought and the mind of man, woman, and child — war. I can say

NEW YORK 105

detestable war, because war is detestable, and we are fighting this war today
for the purpose of driving out war permanently. That is the great object
of our entering this war, or one of the great objects, and I am sure that it
is also one of yours. It was a great relief to us — a great relief to the civil-
ized world — that when this war broke out you were in your position of
primacy upon the Pacific, there to guard effectively and effectually against
the diplomatic depredations that might have taken place if Germany had
been permitted to do as she was disposed to do in China. For the service
that you rendered in that respect the world is indeed your debtor. But the
idea that I think we should also have in mind, as well as winning the war,
as well as prosecuting it to a successful finish, is this : While we are en-
gaged in this war, let us realize the ties that bind. Let us realize that
brothers in war should be brothers in peace; that what we have at interest
in the war we will also have at interest in times of peace; and during this
struggle, when we are so close together, when we are fraternizing, as broth-
ers should, when we are feeling toward each other as brothers should, let
us lay the groundwork of a great commercial relation that no contingency
or exigency will ever disturb in the future, the groundwork of a commercial
relation that will draw us so close together that we will realize the genuine
ties of brotherhood. That, I think, is one of the great desires of the Amer-
ican people, and that is one of the great desires that New York expresses
to you, at the conclusion of your happy visit to us.

John Dewey, Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University, who was the
next speaker, was listened to with great intentness. He said:

Some one remarked that the best way to unite all the nations on this
globe would be an attack from some other planet. In the face of such an
alien enemy, people would respond with a sense of their unity of interest
and purpose. We have the next thing to that at the present time. Before
a common menace, North and South America, the Occident and Orient
have done an unheard of thing, a wonderful thing, a thing which, it may
well be, future history will point to as the most significant thing in these
days of wonderful happenings. They have joined forces amply and inti-
mately in a common cause with one another and with the European nations
which were most directly threatened. What a few dreamers hoped might
happen in the course of some slow coming century has become an accom-
plished fact in a few swift years. In spite of geographical distance, unlike
speech, diverse religion, and hitherto independent aims, nations from every
continent have formed what for the time being is nothing less than a world
state, an immense cooperative action in behalf of civilization.

It is safe to say that, with all its preparedness, Germany never antici-
pated this result. Even now the fact is so close to us that even we, who
have been brought together, are too much engaged in the duties which the
union imposes to realize the force of the new and unique creation of a
union of peoples, yes, of continents. The imagination is not yet capable
of taking it in.

It has been more than once noted that Germany has exhibited an ex-

106 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

traordinary spectacle to the world. It has stood for organization at home and
disorganization abroad, for cooperative effort among its own people and for
division and hostility among all other peoples. All through the earlier years
of the war the intellectuals of Germany appealed for sympathy in this coun-
try because of what Germany had done in the. way of social legislation and
administration to promote the unity of all classes, because of its efficiency in
organization, because of the intelligent efforts it had made to secure domestic
prosperity. But, at the same time, as events have since only too clearly
demonstrated, it was bending every energy of corrupt and hateful intrigue
to disunite the American people among themselves and to incite suspicion,
jealousy, envy, and even active hostility between the American nation and
other nations, like Mexico and Japan, with whom we had every reason to
live in amity and no reasons of weight for anything but amity. In the light
of this exhibition, German love of organization and cooperative unity at
home gains a sinister meaning. It stands convicted of falsity because born
of a malicious conspiracy against the rest of the world. It loved unity and
harmony, not for themselves, but simply as a means of bringing about that
dominion of Germany over the world of which its remorseless and treacher-
ous efforts to divide other peoples are the other half.

The rest of the world, of the once neutral world, was, it must be con-
fessed, slow to awake to Germany's plots and purposes. They seemed fan-
tastic, unreal, in their unbridled lust for power and their incredibly bad
faith. It was especially hard for us in this country, who have never been
trained to identify our loyalty to our own country with hatred of any other,
to realize that Germany's genius for efficiency and organization had become
a menace to domestic union and international friendliness over the world.
But finally in North America, as in South America, and in Asia, when the
case became too clear for further doubt, Germany's challenge was met.
Against Germany's efforts to disunite there arose a world united in en-
deavor and achievement on a scale unprecedented in the history of this
globe, a scale too vast not to endure and in enduring to make the future
history of international relationships something very different from their
past history. In struggling by cunning and corruption to separate and divide
other peoples, Germany has succeeded in drawing them together with a
rapidity and an intimacy almost beyond belief. Nations thus brought to-
gether in community of feeling and action will not easily fall apart, even
though the occasion which brought them together passes, as, pray God, it
will soon pass. The Germany which seems finally to be breaking up within
has furnished the rest of the world with a cement whose uses will not easily
be forgotten.

Formal alliances, set treaties, legal arrangements for arbitration and
conciliation, leagues and courts of nations, all have their importance. But,,
gentlemen, their importance is secondary. They are effects rather than
causes, symptoms rather than forces. You may have them all, and if nations
have not discovered that their permanent interests are in mutuality and
interchange, they will be evaded or overridden. They may be lacking, but
if the vital sap of reciprocal trust and friendly intercourse is flowing through
the arteries of commerce and the public press, they will come in due season

'NEW YORK 107

as naturally and inevitably as the trees put forth their leaves when their
day of spring has come, it is our problem and our duty, I repeat, especially
of you gentlemen of diplomacy and of what I shall venture to call the even
more powerful instrument of good will and understanding, the public press,
to turn our immediate and temporary relation for purposes of war into an
enduring and solid connection for all of the sweet and constructive offices
of that peace which must some day again dawn upon a wracked and troubled
world.

Where diversity is greatest, there is the greatest opportunity for a fruit-
ful cooperation which will be magnificently helpful to those who cooperate.
This meeting this evening is a signal ej/idence of the coming together of
the portions of the earth which for countless centuries went their own way
in isolation, developing great civilizations, each in their own way. Now in
the fulness of days, the Orient and the Occident, the United States and
Japan, have drawn together to engage in faith in themselves and in each
other in the work of building up a society of nations each free to develop
its own national life and each bound in helpful intercourse with every other.
May every influence which would sow suspicion and misunderstanding be
accursed, and every kindly power that furthers enduring understanding and
reciprocal usefulness be blest. May this meeting stand not only as a pass-
ing symbol, but as a lasting landmark of the truth that among nations as
among men of good will there shall be peace, not a peace of isolation or
bare toleration which has become impossible in this round world of ours,
not a peace based on mutual fear and mutual armament, but a virile peace
in which emulation in commerce, science, and the arts bespeaks two great
nations that respect each other because they respect themselves.

Don C. Seitz, of the New York World, who has traveled, in the Far East
and studied its problems, caught the entire attention of the company as he re-
sponded to Mr. Villard's call:

I think the visit of the Japanese Commission has been the most im-
pressive among all of those *who have come to us from the other parts of
the world as the outcome of the great war, and I think, too, it has a great
purpose, and is bound to have a great result, because, if you will recall care-
fully, you will find that the other gentlemen all came to the United States
to get something ; but these gentlemen have come to give us something.

There is a great deal to be learned in the Orient, and I know it is a
trite phrase to say that everything is upside down in the East, that all
Oriental ideas are opposite those held by ourselves, but in some ways this is
an improvement. There is also a perspicacity among Orientals which we
lack ourselves. Only recently I had to sit for nearly an hour and listen to
the efforts of a former Attorney General of the United States to explain
and vindicate the Monroe Doctrine, and here Viscount Ishii, in the midst
of many affairs, sizes it up in a few words, perceiving that our fundamental
doctrine is that we will allow no one to lick our neighbors but ourselves.

The East has often been advertised as changeless. This is wrong.

108 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Matthew Arnold, you know, wrote a celebrated verse in which he said some-
thing like this; that "The East bowed low before the blast, in silent proud
disdain ; she let the legions thunder past, and turned to thought again."

Now, take it from me, they do more thinking in an hour than we do in
a week in the United States. We very largely jump at conclusions — and in
the East they think.

People who speak about the Japanese nation as a race of little people
doing little things, are misled. A small country, it preserves its propor-
tions and it does nothing without thinking. We do rhany things without
thinking, and often regret it afterwards. These men coming here teach
us of our wrong conclusions, -of our ease in accepting false premises, and
we should change our habits.

Foreign affairs have never received decent treatment in the American
press of recent years, because our own have been more interesting, and we
have not involved ourselves with the troubles of other races. Now that
other nations have brought their troubles to us, we are compelled to know
something, and I think we will. The newspapers seem to me a little slow
in grasping, and slow in informing our people, and our own government
has been remiss in not letting us know more, and the press, I think, has
been a little too insistent in regard to domestic affairs. We have accepted
the excuse of war time to cover many things that we ought to know. If
you were to receive in your office the foreign publications from Japan, such
as the Japan Advertiser and the Japan Chronicle, and perceive the care and
intelligence with which world affairs are discussed and made plain to their
very limited constituency, you would feel rather ashamed of your editorial
exhibitions. You would be surprised at the amount of space you waste in
matters that are of no particular concern in a time like this.

I think it would be a good idea if every publisher and editor here would
subscribe to either one or the other, or both of those publications, and make
somebody in the office read them. You know we have in New York city
a circulation of about a million and a quarter copies of foreign-language
publications ; and I never yet found an editor in New York who knew a
single thing that was printed in one of 4them. Now, they may be saying
all kinds of things about us, for us and against us, and we ought to know
what it is, but we decline to do it.

You know, some of the peculiarities of Japanese politics, and the way
they look at things strike us oddly. I was interested in a recent episode in
Japan. Mr. Ozaki, whom some of you have met in New York, and who
was for a long time Mayor of Tokio, and leader of democratic thought in
Japan, has recently gone farther, perhaps, than even his original platform
policy, and not long ago one of his constituents, a humble shoemaker, feel-
ing that his idol had gone far beyond the limits, killed himself as a protest
against the democratic thoughts of his leader. I was wondering how great
a mortality would follow in our present mayoralty campaign, if this practice
were zealously carried out. How many children would have a father a day
after the campaign got well under way ?

We take things for granted here that they will not take for granted in
the Far East.

NEW YORK 109

Well, when the Japanese came forward at the beginning of this war to
join their first ally. England, and their later allies, ourselves, people said
they did it without risk. Why, gentlemen, no nation in the world ever took
such a risk. Japan is a land without surplus, a little land, where people live
crowded between the mountains and the sea ; where, unless the soil bears
three crops a year, people starve; where, if the fisher fleets fail to come in
regularly every other day, there is little to eat; where everything has to be
watched; where nothing can be wasted, and where the population grows
apace. If they were to be blockaded, or shut in in any fashion, Japan
would starve quicker than any nation in the world. Remoteness is not
a defense in these times, as we ourselves are about to demonstrate. Every-
body is within reach; and so they went into this matter, not selfishly,
but with a high idealism ; and when we learned through the secret dispatches
recently that the great German Empire thought so ill of the great Eastern
Empire, as to make it appear that it could break its word, we then and there
were able to write for once the true value of German knowledge of world
affairs. We were then able for the first time to perceive that there had been
a most lamentable breakdown of intellectual and moral force in Germany;
and that, gentlemen, is the thing we have to guard against ourselves, because
this war, after all, is not going to be won by force of arms. It is going to
be won by the sufferings of the noncombatants, and by the intellectual and
moral forces, when they once rally, and put on the proper pressure; and
what we have got to look for, is a rally of this intellectual and moral force,
and it would not surprise me in the least, if this greatest factor of all came
from Japan.

An observer who came recently from Europe said to me that the most
dangerous thing about the situation was not German militarism, but the
breakdown of intellectual strength in the chancelleries of Europe. He said
he had not found anywhere among all the countries and in all the Cabinets
men of strength of mind enough to take hold of this hideous disease and
bring it to some kind of an end. He understood it must wear itself out in
the blood of the people, in the suffering of the innocent, and in the destruc-
tion of property.

Supposing out of the East should come a ray of light that leads into
the path. One thing, at least, has come. We in the United States have
swept away forever this miserable doctrine of distrust that has come for-
ward day after flay to puzzle and vex us. When I was in Japan the Pre-
mier said to me: "What have we done that should arouse this suspicion,
these endless attacks? We have met every request you made, and kept
every promise we have made. Where does it come from? What have we
done and what have you done?" And I could not answer him. We know
now. We have located it.

Mr. Aimaro Sato, the Ambassador from Japan, was the last speaker of the
evening. He was warmly greeted and his concluding sentence evoked a storm
of applause.

110 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

A friend of mine was speaking to me of the author of "Paradise Lost'r
the other day.

Some one asked the pott if he were going to instruct his daughters in
the different languages of which he was a master. Milton turned upon his
friend sharply:

"No sir," said he, with a grim and frigid emphasis ; "one tongue is
enough for any woman."

Tonight, before this genial and brilliant company, I find that one tongue
is a good deal more than enough for one mere man, especially when he
happens to be a Japanese in the diplomatic service, and more especially when
the tongue happens to be the English language.

The fact, however, that I am actually upon my feet testifies, with some-
thing of a touching eloquence, to the witchery of the hours, to the magic of
your friendly presences, and, above all, to the compelling lure of the theme
of which our hearts are filled to overflowing tonight — the bringing together
of the two great peoples on either side of the Pacific to a heart-to-heart
understanding. Once that is ours, the German intrigues will be but an
empty jest, and the flaming yellow journal propaganda as futile as the poison-
gas attack upon the sun and the stars.

We are gathered here — and my honored colleague, Viscount Ishii, is
with us — for a modest bit of work which is nothing short of wiping the
Pacific Ocean from off the map of spiritual and intellectual unity and com-
munity between the United States and Japan. We have come together as
good neighbors, you of America and we of Japan. But we have been that
since the days of your Townsend Harris. Tonight we sit side by side as
something more than mere friends — we are soldiers of the common cause.
We are to fight for the realization of one dream for the defense of the one
and same political ideal. Gentlemen, the Empire of the Extreme East and
the greatest of earth's republics are now comrades in arms against the com-
mon foe. And that is something new. For the first time since the Lord
spoke the world into being the Stars and Stripes will garnish the battle-red
skyline side by side with the sun flag of Nippon in a worldwide war upon
militant autocracy. That is a fact big enough for history to take note of.

Time was — and it has been long and weary, too — when black intrigues
and blatant propaganda against the American- Japanese amity lorded it over
the popular sentiment of your people. In the very days when Japan was
doing her bit for the happy consummation of the Anglo-American Arbitra-
tion Treaty, there were people and press here who painted Japan as the
archfiend, scheming to force the British Empire to back her in a wanton
war against the United States. Those were trying days. We bore them in
silence. We bore them, happy in the profound confidence in the ultimate
triumph of the American sense of justice and of right. We bore them with
the conviction that no clouds, however black, however stormy, had ever
succeeded in putting out the sun; that the sunlight is ever the brighter the
blacker the storm. But that time, thank Heaven, is no more.

And it is with a throbbing pleasure I note that the coming of your guest
of honor tonight and his fellow commissioners seems to mark the turn or
the tide in the American- Japanese relations. But what makes the visit of

NEW YORK HI

the present Mission epochal is not what it has already wrought upon the
sentiment of the people of America. The real significance of the Ishii Mis-
sion is its effect upon the tomorrow, upon the things that are to come. And
I beg you to permit me to join you in hailing the visit of the Mission as a
promise and prophecy of the coming of a saner day, when there shall be no
East and no West in the wider vision of international peace.

A Visit to Theodore Roosevelt

The morrow found Viscount Ishii ill with a cold and on his way to Atlantic
City, under the doctor's orders to rest from his strenuous labors. Vice Admiral
Takeshita had been obliged to absent himself from the Villard dinner on account
of a cold, but, fortunately, he was sufficiently recovered the next day to allow of his
visiting former President Theodore Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, in company with
other members of the Mission. The Vice Admiral and others of the 'Mission had
known Colonel Roosevelt during his occupancy of the White House, and they
met and enjoyed the day by the salt water in the guise of old friends.

XI
HOMEWARD BOUND

A Message of Gratitude from the Coast

A farewell statement expressing deep obligation to the American nation
was made public on November 9 in San Francisco by Viscount Kikujiro Ishii
in anticipation of his departure for Japan in company with the Mission of which
he was the head. He said :

The kindly welcome given by the Pacific Coast to our Mission has found
most lavish indorsement and emphasis at every point we have visited in the
United States. It only remains for me, as the parting guest, to express our
sincere and heartfelt gratitude to the whole people of this great country for
the hospitality, the courtesy and the high consideration we have received.

I do not underestimate the heavy obligation under which we of Japan
have been placed in the personal debt I owe to the President and the people
of the United States. We are prepared to meet the obligation to the limit
of our ability and to maintain a friendship and confidence which is based and
nurtured on good understanding and good neighborhood.

We came with a firm belief in the broad and generous spirit of America.
We leave with a sense of profound admiration for your splendid humanity
and patriotism, coupled with your unswerving loyalty to the high principles
of the cause to which we are mutually pledged.

A Word of Reassurance from Hawaii

Nor was this all. Reaching Honolulu on November 15, Viscount Ishii, at a
luncheon in honor of the Mission, declared that "the attitude of the United States
toward the war insures its successful termination."

What we have seen on the continent of America gives absolute un-
changeable confidence in the final outcome and complete victory of our cause,
which insures national individual independence.

I carried to the United States a message, assurances, and a pledge of
comradeship; a guarantee of partnership. From the east to the west shores
I found the message and its purpose accepted and understood in a kindred
spirit. The barrier of language was broken down. I am convinced that a
good understanding has been reached that will clear the menace of un-
pleasant entanglements hitherto maintained by our common foe.

We are proud bearers to our beloved country of the answer from our
true friend to the message we brought.

Viscount Ishii and his associates arrived at Yokohama on November 26, 1917-

XII

VISCOUNT ISHIPS TRIBUTE TO AMERICA

THE EMPEROR'S MESSAGE OF THANKS TO

PRESIDENT WILSON

On returning home, Viscount Ishii embraced the first opportunity to give
fitting conclusion to the work of the Mission he headed and to the various speeches
he delivered in America, by imparting to the Japanese public the impression
gained, during his memorable tour, of the very friendly attitude of the American
government and people toward Japan and of the "tremendously virile force" at
work in the United States for the prosecution of the war.

The opportunity occurred at a Tokio banquet given in honor of Viscount
Ishii and his associates on December 17 by representative Japanese and Americans.

The proceedings of the function were cabled by the Tokio representative of
the Associated Press as follows:

Tokio, Dec. 17. Viscount Kikujiro Ishii, head of the Japanese Mission,
which recently visited the United States, was the guest of honor at the ban-
quet given this evening, which was attended by two hundred Japanese and
Americans. Baron Eiichi Shibusawa, President of the American- Japanese
Association, and Chairman of the Tokio Bankers' Association, presided. The
guests at the function were the members of the Special Mission which visited
the United States, Roland S. Morris, the American Ambassador, and the
staff of the American Embassy.

The banquet was the most representative gathering in recent years, and
gave to Viscount Ishii his first opportunity to speak to the Japanese public
since his arrival from the United States. The speech has been circulated
broadcast and has been made a feature by newspapers throughout the
country.

Responding to the toast of the evening, Viscount Ishii said:

Since last I met you I have been given extraordinary opportunities
to address great audiences. There are many words and sentiments which
I would wish to add now, but in this presence, indeed before the whole
world, I declare that I would not modify or withdraw anything I said
in the course of our visit to America. We had a wonderful trip and a
wonderful experience. We sailed upon a voyage of discovery in search
of treasure and found it.

114 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

It affords me the keenest gratification to tell you that we bring
back to all the people of Japan from all the people of America a mes-
sage charged with an earnest spirit of good will and a sincere desire for
a good understanding and friendship. The answer to your message of
good will was delivered to us by the whole people of America, by men
whose names stand highest in the roll of American honor. Let there be
no doubt among you as to the sincerity of the message. There was no
false note in it; there was no discordant tone in the voices welcoming
us. We are well aware that our personalities played no part in the
treatment we received from the President and people of the United
States, which was intended for our Emperor and our people.

Now returning from our voyage of discovery, wre bring to our
gracious sovereign and the people of our nation the assurance that the
true gold of America lies at the very heart of its people. We are very
earnest in our desire to convince the whole people of this country of
the value and real meaning of the reception of this Mission at the
hands of the people 'of the United States. Here let me refer to the
notes exchanged between Japan and America. For the consummation
of this international agreement I stand personally a debtor to President
Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing for unusual courtesies and
consideration. As the result of the frank exchange of opinion we ar-
rived at an agreement, which must help America, China and Japan.

The mutual declarations with regard to China ought not to be the
subject of suspicion at any time. Neither should they under any con-
sideration give offense, because where no offense is intended, no offense
can be given.

There is no suggestion of interference in China in the policies of
the government in the recognition of the fact that Japan stands in special
relation with or has special interest in China.

Chinese friends tell us that China and Japan are like the two wings
of a bird, the two wheels of a carriage, or as the lips to the teeth. It
is difficult for me to understand, therefore, why a highly intelligent
people should now take- umbrage because of this putting into writing
of the special relations between Japan and China or of the special
interests of Japan in China. I confidently believe that the time will
come soon when our Chinese friends, in their quick discernment of the
world situation, will be satisfied to be partners in the new agreement,
which so materially contributes to strengthening the good relations, not
only between America and Japan, but between Japan, America and
China.

With such a renewed conception of international amity and solidar-
ity, guaranteeing unbroken tranquillity in eastern Asia, the undivided
energies of Japan and China should henceforth be directed toward
strengthening the forces now struggling in the common cause, which
China has espoused, as well as Japan.

I am now happy to be able to state before you that there are now
no longer questions with regard to China between Japan and the United
States. In a speech before a magnificent assemblage at a dinner in the

VISCOUNT ISHIl's TRIBUTE TO AMERICA 115

city of New York, I said that for many years the common foe of Japan
and America has been the worst enemy of China. German influence is
responsible for most of the unfortunate misunderstandings and wide-
spread misinformation impairing the relations between the two coun-
tries. If the Chinese government or people should now be misled by
an ill advised interpretation of this new instrument it would be a matter
of sincere regret to me, as, I am sure, it would be to the eminently fair,
broad-minded and splendid statesman who stands at the head of the
diplomatic affairs of the United States.

Describing matters of chief importance connected with the visit of the
Mission, Viscount Ishii paid a fine tribute to "the loyalty, patriotism, unity
and magnificent self-sacrifice of the whole people of the United States look-
ing to effective participation in the war." He said that the country was united
in support of the President, adding:

The resources are so vast and the spirit so pronounced that none
can doubt the result when once this tremendously virile force gets into
action. No words of mine can describe the overwhelming sense oi
power, the latent, determined, grim and unrelenting purpose where the
seen and unseen forces of America are gathering for the final blow,
which must win this war. We are proud indeed to be the comrades and
partners of such allies. We are proud to have a share and a place among
the armies moving forward to the set objective.

The Emperor's Message of Thanks to President Wilson

Viscount Ishii and his associates were received in audience by His Imperial
Majesty the Emperor on the morning of November 28. On their departure from
the palace, His Majesty caused the following telegram to be sent to President
Wilson :

I have just been extremely pleased to hear from Viscount Ishii a per-
sonal account of the hearty welcome accorded my special mission to the
United States, and once more tender to Your Excellency, and through Your
Excellency to the American people, my profound thanks for and my deep
appreciation of that warm display of sincere international friendship which
is of all good augury for the future of the. two nations and which -will be
held in grateful memory in my country.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX A
THE ROOT-TAKAHIRA EXCHANGE OF NOTES, 1908

Note from the Japanese Ambassador to the Secretary of State

JAPANESE EMBASSY,
Washington, Nov. 30, 1908.
SIR:

The exchange of views between us, which has taken place at the several
interviews which I have recently had the honor of holding with you, has
shown that Japan and the United States, holding important outlying insular
possessions in the region of the Pacific Ocean, the governments of the two
countries are animated by a common aim, policy and intention in that region.

Believing that a frank avowal of that aim, policy and intention would
not only tend to strengthen the relations of friendship and good neighborhood
which have immemorially existed between Japan and the United States, but
would materially contribute to the preservation of the general peace, the Im-
perial Government have authorized me to present to you an outline of their
understanding of that common aim, policy and intention:

1. It is the wish of the two governments to encourage the free and
peaceful development of their commerce on the Pacific Ocean.

2. The policy of both governments, uninfluenced by any aggressive ten-
dencies, is directed to the maintenance of the existing status quo in the region
above mentioned and to the defense of the principle of equal opportunity for
commerce and industry in China.

3. They are accordingly firmly resolved reciprocally to respect the ter-
ritorial possessions belonging to each other in said region.

4. They are also determined to preserve the common interests of all
powers in China by supporting by all pacific means at their disposal the in-
dependence and integrity of China and the principles of equal opportunity for
commerce and industry of all nations in that Empire.

5. Should any event occur threatening the status quo as above described
or the principle of equal opportunity, as above defined, it remains for the two
governments to communicate with each other, in order to arrive at an under-
standing as to what measures they may consider it useful to take.

If the foregoing outline accords'with the view of the government of the
United States, I shall be gratified to receive your confirmation.
I take, etc.

K. TAKAHIRA.

THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

Note from the Secretary of State to the Japanese Ambassador

,

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, Nov. 30, 1908.
EXCELLENCY :

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note today, setting
forth the result of the exchange of views between us in our recent interviews,
denning the understanding of the two governments in regard to their policy
in the region of the Pacific Ocean.

It is a pleasure to inform you that this expression of mutual under-
standing is welcome to the government of the United States as appropriate
to the happy relation of the two countries and the occasion for a concise,
mutual affirmation of that accordant policy respecting the Far East which the
two governments have so frequently declared in the past.

I am happy to be able to confirm to Your Excellency, on behalf of the
United States, the declaration of the two governments embodied in the fol-
lowing words :

(Here follows a declaration identical to that given by Baron Takahira over
the signature of Mr. Elihu Root.)

APPENDIX B
THE LANSING-ISHII EXCHANGE OF NOTES, 1917

As a culmination of the labors of the Imperial Japanese Mission to the
United States, under the leadership of Viscount Ishii, in its conversations with
the American Department of State under Secretary of State Robert Lansing, an
agreement was reached on November 2, 1917. This important state paper setting
forth this agreement has been hailed in Japan and the United States alike as of
happiest augury for the peace of the world, as defining permanently the relations
of Japan and the United States in regard to China, and as assuring definitely the
status of China before the nations. The Lansing-Ishii agreement is the crown
of the high achievements of the Imperial Mission. It will take its place in living
history beside the celebrated Root-Takahira agreement, and will long share renown
with the John Hay correspondence originally proclaiming the "open door" in
China.

The agreement follows, and with it are included the illuminating comments
of Secretary of State Lansing and Viscount Ishii.

Following is the State Department's announcement:

On Friday, November 2, 1917, the Secretary of State and Viscount Ishii,
the special Japanese Ambassador, exchanged at the Department of State the
following notes dealing with the policy of the United States and Japan in regard
to China:

Note from the Secretary of State to the Japanese Ambassador

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, Nov. 2, 1917.
Excellency :

I have the honor to communicate herein my understanding of the agree-
ment reached by -us in our recent conversations touching the questions of
mutual interest to our governments relating to the republic of China.

In order to silence mischievous reports that have from time to time
been circulated it is believed by us that a public announcement once more
of the desires and intentions shared by our two governments with regard
to China is advisable.

The governments of the United States and Japan recognize that ter-
ritorial propinquity creates special relations between countries, and, conse-
quently, the government of the United States recognizes that Japan has
special interests in China, particularly in the part to which her possessions
are contiguous.

122 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION

The territorial sovereignty of China, nevertheless, remains unimpaired,
and the government of the United States has every confidence in the re-
peated assurances of the Imperial Japanese government that while geogra-
phical position gives Japan such special interests they have no desire to dis-
criminate against the trade of other nations or to disregard the commercial
rights heretofore granted by China in treaties with other^ powers.

The governments of the United States and Japan deny that they have
any purpose to infringe in any way the independence or territorial integrity
of China, and they declare, furthermore, that they always adhere to the prin-
ciple of the so-called "open door" or equal opportunity for commerce and
industry in China.

Moreover, they mutually declare that they are opposed to the acquisi-
tion by any government of any special rights or privileges that would affect
the independence or territorial integrity of China or that would deny to the
subjects or citizens of any country the full enjoyment of equal opportunity
in the commerce and industry of China.

I shall be glad to have Your Excellency confirm this understanding of
the agreement reached by us.

Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurance of my highest consideration.

(Signed) ROBERT LANSING.
His EXCELLENCY, VISCOUNT KIKUJIRO ISHII,

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
of Japan, on Special Mission.

Note from the Japanese Ambassador to the Secretary of State

THE SPECIAL MISSION OF JAPAN,

Washington, Nov. 2, /p//.
Sir:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note today, com-
municating to me your understanding of the agreement reached by us in
our recent conversations touching the questions of mutual interests to our
governments relating to the republic of China.

I am happy to be able to confirm to you, under authorization of my
government, the understanding in question set forth in the following terms:
[Here the special Ambassador repeats the language of the agreement
as given in Secretary Lansing's note].

(Signed) K. ISHII,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

of Japan on Special Mission,
HONORABLE ROBERT LANSING,
SECRETARY OF STATE.

Secretary of State Lansing's Statement
In his statement accompanying the announcement Secretary Lansing said :

Viscount Ishii and the other Japanese Commissioners who are now on
their way back to their country have performed a service to the United
States as well as to Japan which is of the highest value.

THE LANSING-ISHII EXCHANGE OF NOTES, 1917 123

There had unquestionably been growing up between the peoples of the
two countries a feeling of suspicion as to the motives inducing the activities
of the other in the Far East — a feeling which, if unchecked, promised
to develop a serious situation. Rumors and reports of improper .intentions
were increasing and were more and more believed. Legitimate commercial
and industrial enterprises without ulterior motive were presumed to have
political significance, with the result that opposition to those enterprises was
aroused in the other country.

The attitude of constraint and doubt thus created was fostered and en-
couraged by the campaign of falsehood, which for a long time had been
adroitly and secretly carried on by Germans, whose government as a part
of its foreign policy desired especially to so alienate this country and Japan,
that it would be at the chosen time no difficult task to cause a rupture of their
good relations. Unfortunately there were people in both countries, many of
whom were entirely honest in- their beliefs, who accepted every false rumor
as true, and aided the German propaganda by declaring that their own govern-
ment should prepare for the conflict, which they asserted was inevitable,
that the interests of the two nations in the Far East were hostile, and that
every activity of the other country in the Pacific had a sinister purpose.

Fortunately this distrust was not so general in either the United States
or Japan as to affect the friendly relations of the two governments, but
there is no doubt that the feeling of suspicion was increasing and the untrue
reports were receiving more and more credence in spite of the earnest
efforts which were made on both sides of the Pacific to counteract a move-
ment which would jeopardize the ancient friendship of the two nations.

The visit of Viscount Ishii and his colleagues has accomplished a great
change of opinion in this country. By frankly denouncing the evil influences
which have been at work, by openly proclaiming that the policy of Japan is
not one of aggression, and by declaring that there is no intention to take
advantage, commercially or industrially, of the special relations to China
created by geographical position, the representatives of Japan have cleared
the diplomatic atmosphere of the suspicions which had been so carefully
spread by our enemies and by misguided or overzealous people in both
countries. In- a few days the propaganda of years has been undone, and
both nations are now able to see how near they came to being led into the
trap which had been skilfully set for them.

Throughout the conferences which have taken place Viscount Ishii has
shown a sincerity and candor which dispelled every doubt as to his purpose
and brought the two; governments into an attitude of confidence toward
each other which made it possible to discuss every question with frankness
and cordiality. Approaching the subjects in such a spirit and with the
mutual desire to remove every possible cause of controversy the negotia-
tions were marked by a sincerity and good will which from trie first insured
their success.

^ The principal result of the negotiations was the mutual understanding
which was reached as to the principles governing the policies of the two
governments in relation to China. This understanding is formally set forth
in the notes exchanged, and now made public. The statements in the notes

124 THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE MISSION'

require no explanation. They not only contain a reaffirmation of the operi
door policy, but introduce a principle of non-interference with the sover-
eignty and territorial integrity of China, which, generally applied, is essen-
tial to perpetual international peace, as clearly declared by President Wilson,
and which is the very foundation also of Pan Americanism as interpreted
by this government.

The removal of doubts and suspicions and the mutual declaration of the
new doctrine as to the Far East would be enough to make the visit of the
Japanese Commission to the United States historic and memorable, but it
accomplished a further purpose, which is of special interest to the world at
this time, in expressing Japan's earnest desire to cooperate with this country
in waging war against the German government. The discussions, which
covered the military, naval and economic activities to be employed with due
regard to relative resources and ability, showed the same spirit of sincerity
and candor which characterized the negotiations resulting in the exchange
of notes.

At the present time it is inexpedient to make public the details of these
conversations, but it may be said that this government has been gratified by
the assertions of Viscount Ishii and his colleagues that their government
desired to do their part in the suppression of Prussian militarism and were
eager to cooperate in every practical way to that end. It might be added,
however, that complete and satisfactory understandings upon the matter of
naval cooperation in the Pacific for the purpose of attaining the common
object against Germany and her allies have been reached between the rep-
resentative of the Imperial Japanese navy who is attached to the Special
Mission of Japan and the representative of the United States navy.

It is only just to say that success which has attended the intercourse
of the Japanese Commission with American officials and with private per-
sons as well is due in large measure to the personality of Viscount Ishii, the
head of the Mission. The natural reserve and hesitation which are not
unusual in negotiations of a delicate nature disappeared under the influence
of his open friendliness, while his frankness won the confidence and good
will of all. It is doubtful if a representative of a different temper could
in so short a time have done as much as Viscount Ishii to place on a better
and firmer basis the relations between the United States and Japan. Through
him the American people have gained a new and higher conception of the
reality of Japan's friendship for the United States, which will be mutually
beneficial in the future.

Viscount Ishii will be remembered in this country as a statesman of
high attainments, as a diplomat with a true vision of international affairs
and as a genuine and outspoken friend of America.

Viscount Ishii's Statement

The following statement by Viscount Ishii, -head of the Japanese Special
Mission, was given out by the Japanese Embassy:

THE LANSING-ISHII EXCHANGE OF NOTES, 1917 l2f>

My final departure from Washington affords a fit occasion for me to
express once more to the American people my deep sense of gratitude for
the cordial reception and hospitality accorded to the Special Mission of
Japan. The spontaneous and enthusiastic manifestations of friendship and
good will toward us on all hands have profoundly impressed not only the
members of the Mission, but the whole Japanese people. The kindly feeling
and fraternal spirit always existing between the two nations have never been
more emphatically testified to.

Believing, as I do, in frank talking, I have tried as best I could in my
public utterances in this country to tell the truth and the facts about my
country, the aspirations and motives which spur my nation. For to my
mind it is misrepresentation and the lack of information that allow discor-
dance and distrust to creep in in the relationship between nations. I am
happy to think that at a time when the true unity and cooperation between
the Allied nations are dire necessities it has been given me to contribute in
my small way to a better understanding and appreciation among the Ameri-
cans with regard to Japan.

The new understanding in regard to the line of policy to be followed by
Japan and America respecting the republic of China augurs well for the
undisturbed maintenance of the harmonious accord and good neighborliness
between our two countries. It certainly will do away with all doubts that
have now and then shadowed the Japanese-American relationship. It can
not fail to defeat for all time the pernicious efforts of German agents, to
whom every new situation developing in China always furnished so fruitful
a field for black machinations. For the rest, this new understanding of ours
substantiates the solidity of comradeship, which is daily gaining strength
among the honorable and worthy nations of the civilized world.

It is a great pleasure for me to add that this declaration has been reached
as an outcome of free exchange of frank views between the two govern-
ments. I can not pay too high a tribute to the sincerity and farsightedness
of Secretary Lansing, with whom it was my privilege to associate in so
pleasurable a way. It is my firm belief that so long as the two governments
maintain a perfectly appreciative attitude toward each other, so long as there
is no lack of statesmanship to guide public opinion, the reign of peace and
tranquillity in our part of the world will remain unchallenged.

INDEX TO SPEAKERS

PAGE

Anderson, George W 51

Clark, Speaker Champ 27

Clews, Henry 44

Coolidge, Lt. Gov. Calvin 51

Curley, Mayor James M 48, 50

Daniels, Secretary Josephus . . . .- 19

Dewey, John 105

Elder, Samuel J 51

Gary, Judge Elbert H 63, 86

Ishii, Viscount Kikujiro:

Boston 46, 49, 51, 52

Honolulu 4, 112

Mount Vernon 20

Newport 44

New York 67, 72, 78, 80, 90, 97, 103

Philadelphia 32, 34, 38

San Francisco 6, 7, 10, 11, 112

Tokio 113

Washington 15, 16, 21, 24, 28, 55

McNab, Gavin 9, 12

Mitchel, Mayor John Purroy 62, 73, 76, 83, 86, 89

Morris, Ambassador Roland S 31, 34, 37

Perry, Bishop James De Wolf 42

Outerbridge, E. H 70, 73

Owen, Senator Robert L 77

Pinkham, Gov. Lucius Eugene 3

Prendergast, William A 104

Root, Elihu , 94

Russell, Lindsay 78

Sato, Ambassador Aimaro 36, 51, 109

Saulsbury, Senator Willard 23

Seitz, Don C 107

Smith, Mayor Thomas B 33

Stephens, Gov. William D 9

Taft, William Howard 87

Villard, Oswald Garrison 99

Whitman, Gov. Charles S 77, 79

Wilson, President Woodrow 16

E Carnegie Endtov;: 'or

1C 3 International Peace. Division

.f; of Intercourse and Education
J3C2 The Imperial Japanese
mission

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